Child birth should be considered immoral

I wish to thank Rational_Thinker9119 for accepting to argue in this debate. Firstly, I will argue why life is most likely bad for you or anyone. Secondly, in the following round, I will deal with the problem of creating other people's lives. Suffering is bad Suffering , in itself, is a bad thing. This can be determined by simply asking any sentient, rational being the question: "in a world where there is only suffering and non-suffering, which would you prefer?" Some may argue that suffering can be good if it means to strengthen character, or if to suffer less in the long-run. However, without any kind of context, with this dichotomy, we can determine that no rational being would ever pick suffering over non-suffering. Thus, suffering is bad (unless there is reason to suffer). Life is discomfort Any sentient creature on this planet will have a state of discomfort that motivates him/her to eliminating it. At best, the discomfort is eliminated with a transcended, euphoric feeling. For example, say you slave away at a "monkey-work" job in India, working 10 hours a day to make enough money to keep you alive for the day. You also know that the conditions you work in are terrible compared to the rest of the world's. You then receive 200 billion rupees for winning the national lottery. The feeling would be indescribable. But, I argue that it was only because of your prolonged suffering in a slave job that you were able to feel such a fantastic emotion. In other words, you had to suffer greatly in order to feel good. You had to have a nearly unbearable itch before it could be scratched. You could only have that thoroughly interesting conversation after having sat through dozens of boring ones, or not having had conversations for a longish time. You can only be happy with what you have after not having it. Contemplate for a moment just how soul-destroying that kind of existence was before the luck -- the fantastic feeling was anything but guaranteed. This is not to mention the deprivation revitalising soon after the money is received -- the need for "more". Perhaps it will not be "more money", but rather a companion of some kind, maybe an accolade. Thus, discomfort soon arises after comfort has been met. How is it justifiable to bring someone into existence that will be deprived incessantly?- and most likely suffer as a result? Your life is far worse than you probably recognise Ever heard the terms, "it is what it is," "that"s just life" or "life isn't fair"? These, I will now argue, are coping devices used to convince ourselves that our lives aren't that bad. How often do you hear these kinds of things after something terrible has happened, such as the house-dog defecating all over the couch, such as not receiving a job placement after applying for 20 different jobs, such as someone losing his/her best friend? Are these events good? No, because suffering of a kind results. These things are terrible and there is nothing you can do about them! What if a wheelchair-bound lady was brutally raped whilst attending a music concert? Would your response then be, "life isn't fair", as you watch her scream? This is essentially what is done in "day-to-day" life, wherein you convince yourself that these bad things are out of your control, yet are worth struggling through for the hope of alleviating them. How can you justify these things? How could you justify throwing someone into an awful existence like this? Life isn't always worth living It is hard to comprehend the true horrors of life -- to exactly what extent "rock-bottom" drops to. When would you say "enough is enough"? What if a person was born with muscular dystrophy, and he/she struggled with regular activities. Would that be a life worth living? Yes? What if a person incurred a crippling type of cancer, requiring 17, hard-to-swallow pills per day? What if a person had that type of cancer, yet was also a quadriplegic?- spending most of his/her time in bed? Is that life worth living? What if the person decided for themselves that the life was not worth living? Clearly, there are some horrible things in life which make the struggle not worthwhile, and bringing a child into this world gives him/her the risk of incurring these horrible things. Conclusion (thus far) For my first lot of arguments, I conclude that life is a burden, an incessant deprivation, and therefore most likely suffering. Sure, when the deprivation is eliminated, joy, happiness and the life will be the result. But the likely suffering and uncertainty of the elimination of deprivation create a far more negative atmosphere. In the event that deprivation is not eliminated, suffering is all but assured. Why would you want to bring another sentient human into a world wherein he/she is likely to suffer far more than feel any kind of positive emotion?- there is plenty of reason to not bring anyone into existence.