“Should I Have Kids?” Is the Wrong Question

Recently, Ezra Klein wrote a column attempting to answer a question he says he is asked all the time: Should today’s adults have kids, given the climate crisis?  

Klein received a good bit of pushback for the odd premise of the question, which seems to reveal more about the company he keeps than actual sentiment. After all, according to Pew Research, only a tiny fraction of childless adults cite climate worries as their motivation. 

But the most poignant part of Klein’s piece is what it assumes.  Think about it: No one is wondering whether adults should abstain from sex in order to keep children from being born onto this doomed planet. Just whether they should use birth control and have abortions in order to keep children from being born onto this doomed planet. 

Childbearing is seen as a technologically controlled choice, completely independent of the act that causes it. This is how much technologies can change how we think about the world and why Christians must always approach new biotechnologies by first asking what humans are for. 

And, as for his original question—yes, we should still have children.