David Benatar hävdar följande i ”No Life Is Good”, publicerad i The Philosophers’ Magazine:

In contrast to the widespread idea that some people have good lives and others bad, I think that while some lives are better than others, no lives are good enough to count as (non-comparatively) good.

Vad är grunden för detta kontroversiella påstående? Jo:

1. ”[T]here is excellent empirical evidence for the conclusion that people’s judgements cannot be trusted as a reliable indicator of how good their lives really are.”
2. ”[W]hatever view one might have about what makes a life good or bad, human lives fall short on the good things but abound in the bad.”

Vilken blir slutsatsen? Ska suicid förespråkas? Nej, inte som allmän hållning, enligt Benatar. Däremot detta:

What does follow, I think, from the conclusion that life is not good, is that we should not create more of it. When we bring new people into existence we start more lives that are not good – and we necessarily do this without the permission of those who will live those lives. We have no duty to create new people and failing to create people can do no harm to those we fail to create. Not having children might make our own lives less good, but starting lives that are not good, merely for our own gratification, is unduly selfish.

Tänkvärt — och en intressant kontrast mot budskapet i den uppmärksammade och, med Benatars sätt att se på saken, mycket korrekt betitlade boken Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids.

Se även ”Bättre att inte existera”, ”Bör nya människor skapas?”, ”Är det moraliskt godtagbart att skaffa barn?”, ”Ja till livet eller ja till döden?” och ”Friheten att skaffa barn”.