>I've had a vasectomy and my wife and I have no children.
One of the most profound lessons I learned from The Selfish Gene is that
we're NOT all in this together. Life is is a competition with other
people to get our genes into the next generation. It may be in our
selfish interest to act altruistically, but only if it means that we
increase our chances of getting our genetic material (or something very
similar to it, like our sibling's or cousin's genetic material), into the
next generation.
What this means is that while we're genetically "programmed" to look
after ourselves and our immediate group, we're also genetically
"programmed" to do so at the expense of others who are more distantly
related to us, if they compete with us for resources (food, land,
breeding partners, etc.).
By foreswearing children you do everyone a favour *except* yourself. It's
as if you were on a soccer team and decided that 11 men a side was unfair
to the other teams, and so took yourself out of the game, leaving only 10
men on your team.
John
----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Steele Foresight Technology, Inc.
john_steele@fsti.com http://www.fsti.com/
(817) 731-4444 Sales: sales@fsti.com
Tech Support: support@fsti.com