When I was severely depressed I was strongly anti-natalist from a personal standpoint. I wished I hadn’t been born, simply. I believed my life had caused me more suffering than good. And since a lot of people are depressed in the world, surely that sentiment is shared by many others. Therefore, it is unethical to bring people into this world.
Now, with a medicated mind, I’ve changed my stance a bit. I no longer wish I hadn’t been born. Despite the years of suffering I went through, I’m thankful to have been born and the thought of dying holds no appeal anymore. With that said, I still think there are people much less fortunate than I whose lives cause them enough agony for them to wish they had never been born. I mostly think of young children who meet gruesome ends or people who were horrifically tortured in their final days, like Junko Furuta. Maybe Junko would’ve still claimed to have been happy for the time she was alive, we’ll never know. But certainly not everyone is. For that reason, even if the percentage of people who regret being born into this world is small, I still think it’s unethical to produce people since they might end up in that percentage.
And I'd like to add that I'm not militantly anti-natalist. Due to the extremely PRO natalist world we live in, it only feels appropriate to slap a big fat ANTI- label on myself. It should be in everybody's best interest to make the world a better place and limit the harm we expose babies to, but we can't even agree on something that simple.
