Begetting Quotes

“There should never be a point in any moral discourse at which we blankly decide that a problem applies to others, but not to us.”
― Mara Van Der Lugt, Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?

“The question of begetting is not simply 'to decide whether or not life is worth bringing into existence', but rather, what it means to make that decision on behalf of another person; to decide whether it can be justified to bring a wholly new and unknown life into existence; and whether it is worth the overwhelming risks that existence might involve. It would be an entirely different matter if it were solely our own risk to take; if it were only our own opinion of life we were considering. The reason why begetting is such a tricky question is precisely that we are risking something, everything, on the life of another person. If this is not somehow a problem for us, then what is?”
― Mara Van Der Lugt, Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?

“By the question of begetting I mean something of larger and deeper significance, something that is born from, and spreads around it, a rich and complicated moral background, a question that consists of other questions. To ask the question of begetting is to ask, 'What does it mean to bring a new creature into the world?' It is to ask, 'What does it mean to decide to perform an act of creation? What does it mean to make the decision that life is worth living on behalf of a person who cannot be consulted?' it is to interrogate one's own responsibility and commitments, morally and philosophically and also personally. To ask the question of begetting is to know, to admit to oneself, that this question can never be purely one of personal inclination, however much we might wish it to be.”
― Mara Van Der Lugt, Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?