[tom-_-]

A thought experiment for those without children approaching having one from a rational perspective. What is the value of your closest personal relationship; your mom, your spouse, your pet etc? Let's say you have a choice, for that relationship to have never existed, meaning all memories (good and bad), and everything you've gained (and lost) from that relationship would be erased unless you paid a price. How much money and time would you sacrifice for that relationship to still exist?

[Turskarama]

This misses the point that gaining a relationship and keeping a relationship are not at all the same. It also misses the possibility of having a bad relationship, and while a bad parent-child relationship is usually on the parent, it isn't always. It's also one of the few (possibly the only) relationship that you can't really bail out of no matter how bad it gets.

Case in point, you ask what the value of peoples close relationships are, but for some people those relationships you mentioned: mom, spouse, pet, actually have negative value.

[tom-_-]

Close relationships can having negative value and it's apart of the question (see parenthesis). Gaining and keeping a relationship are not the same but also not particularly relevant here since the purpose is to quantify the value of close relationships when making a rational decision. Parent to child, child to parent, spouse to spouse, etc relationships have very different value but if you've never had a child, then your estimations of value can only come from your own relationships or asking other parents.

Wrt to bailing on your child, many single moms and dads will tell you that's a thing, not a noble thing but it obviously happens. Also consider marriage, in the US divorce rates are around 40% and can cost more than half of your total assets, which is often far more than the cost of raising a child. In terms of expected value (depending on your income), more risky to get married than to have a child.