Is having children a moral obligation?

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:02][music] >> We collectively owe the world's children, but not every individual owes the world a child. When you only have a few people at the top of the population pyramid, they're very easy [music] to support, but when the bottom comes in because of low fertility, it's hard for these smaller generations to take care of large older generations.

[00:00:23]If you do not want children, you can still participate in a meaningful way in [music] the life of society. You can still give back. You can still serve your community. So, no, there is no need to have children [music] in order to be a meaningful member of the world around us.

[00:00:37]There's such an flurry of concern about low birth rates today that we're coming very close, I think, and I fear we're coming very close to pushing women to have children just as in the past, which is the population problem I grew up encountering.

[00:00:54]I think it's has to be a personal decision and they need support to have a child if they want one, but they certainly don't need pressure to produce one.

[00:01:06]I hope that people [music] understand that the real crisis is not a birth rate crisis. It's a childlessness crisis, a crisis of people unable to have the children they want to have. If we don't solve this crisis, civilizations will end. It's mathematical. If you keep halving the number of births decade after decade after decade, there's a very simple [music] end conclusion to that. So, we owe it to ourselves to start thinking about this soon.