What Are Children For?

On Ambivalence and Choice

Having children is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make in your life. Increasingly, we aren’t making it at all.

Having children is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make in your life. Increasingly, we aren’t making it at all.

A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF 2024

'A book for lovers of sound reasoning.' THE NEW YORKER

Across the developed world, fewer and fewer people are becoming parents. We seek self-fulfilment; we want women to find meaning and self-worth outside the household; we wish to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change; we do what we can to protect others from senseless suffering. On the face of it, none of these goals are served by having children. Amid such pressures, how on earth can we make the choice to do so?  

Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman offer a way out of this inertia and indecision by reminding us that in making the individual decision whether to have children, we confront a profound philosophical question: for all its pains and failures, is human life worth living? What Are Children For? is a stirring call to overcome fear and dread and embrace the value of human existence and a human future.

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