Procreating Properly?

Until quite recently, few had the privilege of pondering whether to have children, or why. It was just one of those things that happen. For anyone now weighing the pros and cons, the reasons considered can be as agonizing as they are boringly banal for anyone else. Can I afford it? Do I owe it to my parents to “give” them a grandchild? Will I be a good parent? Should I sacrifice my brilliant career prospects to have this unplanned baby? But not many, I would surmise, would ever ask if it is the morally right thing to do. That is the question addressed in Christine Overall’s clearly written and carefully argued book, Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate.

The question sounds more weighty than simply “what shall I do?”; but what does it really mean? Some actions are freighted with moral opprobrium: stealing, murder. A few present tragic dilemmas —“Choose the child I will kill,” in Styron’s Sophie’s Choice; E.M. Forster’s “Should I betray my country...