[ksaun]

I think this is an excellent summary of the perspectives.

I agree that it is difficult to come up with a definitive answer.

(That said, trying to persuade reluctant persons that they should have children seems like a really bad idea (not to imply that anyone here was doing this). And, while I chose to be a parent, it seems to me that those who choose to not have children are making a responsible decision for themselves.

(Edit to add: FWIW, while I try to approximate selflessness as much as I can, I consider my decision to have children to have been selfish on my part. (I'm not saying all/other parents are selfish for having kids, just that I feel selfish for having made the decision I did.))

[clnq]

> trying to persuade reluctant persons that they should have children seems like a really bad idea

Indeed, persuading hesitant individuals to have children could be detrimental, as it might interfere with their varied values and beliefs.

For example, convincing a financially insecure (and aware of it) person to have children would make them act against their principles. This situation may result in considerable practical difficulties, of course, but also significant moral suffering.

With that said, some cultures do not care about the beliefs and values of individuals as much as the collective. Religions have an element of this, too. In that case, is it right to persuade someone reluctant to have children? I am way out of my depth to even try and answer that.

[pixl97]

I almost always take religious arguments out the question of 'should I have children'. Successful religions are almost to a tee going to have the two following properties. 1) Have children. 2) Teach those children your religion. The religion has transcended human desire and become a self reinforcing meme at that point, a system serving unto itself. Nations do the same thing to ensure their success, and especially in the case of ethnostates take it to extremes.

Going beyond human behavior, life itself is a very bad example to use to answer the question 'should I have children'. In the vast majority of animal populations if you have food, water, shelter/space until they point they affect the biosphere around them and collapse the population.

The systems we created in the past needed/wanted to maximize the number of people because we died in mass for varied reasons (quite often around childbirth itself), when we 'solved' this suddenly we had massive population growth that would become unsustainable, as they say, exponential growth cannot go on forever. Old systems will have to change to deal with the new reality, or experience dangerous collapses.