Is it ethical to have children?

The benefits of having a child outweigh the costs. Even though childbearing comes with an environmental cost, its contributions to economic growth and human welfare are remarkable. Therefore, according to utilitarianism, it is ethical to have children.

First, by making a new person, we inflict that person onto the world. The world is already full and lacks resources. Adding to the population only worsens the current environmental catastrophe. Secondly, we also inflict the world onto the person we create. It is ethically wrong to have children since they will have to live through the world's problems.

The ethics of childbearing depends on whether parents can provide for their children well and whether parental motives are selfish or not. If parents do not have enough resources to raise a child, then childbearing becomes unethical. Similarly, if the purpose of having a child is only to make the parents’ lives better, childbearing is not ethical.

The ethics of having children do not exist. Having children is a biological need. Species reproduce because there is an innate desire to have children, namely the “parenting drive.” Besides, in some cases, lack of sex education or unavailability of contraception may produce unplanned children.