Having Children Is a Bad Way to Perpetuate Humanity

Having Children Is a Bad Way to Perpetuate Humanity

We’ve already seen how men treat women and children as tools — mere means to fulfill their own ambitions. They pressure women into raising birth rates, espouse rapist rhetoric that echoes entitlement and coercion, and rarely, if ever, consider the pain of pregnancy or the actual well-being of the children they demand.

The harms of childbirth alone are enough reason for women to reject motherhood. But beyond that, we must question whether having children is even a good method to continue humanity at all. The immense resources, time, and suffering poured into raising children could instead be redirected toward something far more impactful: life extension technologies.

Pregnancy Takes More Than It Gives

Even without futuristic technology, childbearing is already a net loss for longevity. Most people have children around age 30 — meaning, at best, children could “extend” humanity’s lineage by 30 years. But the reality is much darker: pregnancy causes irreversible bodily damage, shortens telomeres, and accelerates cellular aging. Research shows that having children can age a woman’s DNA by the equivalent of 11 years — and that’s before factoring in the compounded toll of stress, sleep deprivation, and trauma from parenting.

Motherhood Can Make a Woman’s Cells ‘Older’ by as Much as 11 Years | ScienceAlert

Women could very likely live those 30 extra years themselves — and live them in better health — simply by not having children.

What If We Focused on Extending Lives Instead?

When we consider the potential of life-extension therapies and scientific advancements, the inefficiency of childbirth becomes even more obvious. Childrearing consumes enormous time, energy, and financial costs — time women could spend pushing scientific boundaries, especially in fields like biology, medicine, and aging research.

Imagine millions of women, freed from the obligation of motherhood, pursuing careers in life sciences instead of being trapped by unpaid domestic labor. Humanity would benefit far more from breakthroughs in longevity than from another generation of children growing up in a broken system.

Children Must Start From Zero

Raising children isn’t just hard — it’s redundant. Every child must start from the very beginning and learn everything that adults already know. Children must learn to speak, to walk, to navigate the world. They have to go to school for over 20 years and then learn how to obtain a career. They may start out idealistic, only to suffer and be disillusioned. Parents are quick to proclaim the beauty of childhood but are often eager to outsource the actual labor of parenting to daycare or schools. Most adults dread the task of raising kids and aren’t prepared for the emotional and intellectual investment it truly requires.

Meanwhile, adults have already faced the world and are better equipped to continue shaping it. Why create more people to relive the same trials, stress, and trauma, only for them to relearn the lessons we already know?

The Myth of “Meaning Through Motherhood”

When people claim life is meaningless without children, they unintentionally condemn their own offspring. If meaning is only found through procreation, they are implying their child is worthless unless they also have children — continuing a never-ending cycle of obligation. This ideology is not only bleak, but deeply manipulative.

We’ve also been gaslit into believing children are necessary for a functioning economy — all while men promise that jobs will be replaced by AI and outsourced to immigrants. History and global inequality have already shown us that population does not equal prosperity. Many impoverished nations have large populations but lack infrastructure, healthcare, or opportunity. In fact, overpopulation often worsens inequality.

More Children Means More Elderly

If society is struggling to care for its elderly now, what sense does it make to bring more people into the world who will also grow old and require the same care? In the U.S., raising one child costs over $500,000. This massive burden only siphons resources away from our current population, making it harder — not easier — to support aging citizens.

Cultural Fears and the Fallacy of “Outbreeding”

Men often voice irrational fears about being “outbred” by other cultures. But culture spreads through education and connection, not birth. Social values move across borders faster than ever, thanks to the internet and global communication. Many children born into conservative or religious families grow up to reject those values — often choosing feminism, activism, and child-free lives.

Raising children doesn’t guarantee the preservation of any ideology. A single woman can influence thousands through her voice, her writing, her actions — far more effectively than through birthing and attempting to indoctrinate one child. That’s the reality men don’t want to admit: control is slipping from their hands, and they cling to natalism as a last resort.

Don’t Birth Slaves for Billionaires

The idea that children will extend or save humanity is a delusion. In today’s world, they are far more likely to become the slaves of billionaires, trapped in economic systems built to exploit them.

Women do not owe the world new citizens. We owe ourselves the freedom to live, thrive, and resist. The future doesn’t need more children — it needs liberated women. And that starts by refusing to give birth. ♀