#### Is bringing additional lives into the world an inherently good thing? My intuition says it is neither good or bad as a life that doesn't exist has no value. Value judgments can only happen _once_ a life is created. This is called person-forced values. It has practical relevance because some people may believe life is inherently valuable, so a chicken that exists for eventual slaughter is better than the chicken not getting born (because, say, factory farming is banned). This doesn't go well with my intuition as I believe that there can be lives or states of life that are worse than non-existence (as exemplified by various [worse than death health states](https://journals.lww.com/co-criticalcare/Abstract/2018/10000/States_worse_than_death.15.aspx)). But this still doesn't provide any guidance for the question: "do you have a moral obligation to bring a life into the world?". My tentative answer is **no**. But it also doesn't mean that it's inherently bad to bring a life into the world. (It'll be bad if you're bringing a life into the world fully knowing that the particular life will be full of suffering). https://www.utilitarianism.net/population-ethics #inbox