In Woody Allen's 1992 movie "Husbands and Wives", Allen's character, a university professor, denies his wife's (Mia Farrow) wish for another child, claiming "It's cruel to bring children into this terrible world." She replies: "Don't glorify your refusal on philosophical grounds."

I first saw this movie when I was 17, and Allen's line struck me for two reasons: It sounded sophomoric, even to a teenager, but nevertheless it made a lot of sense. His wife's response cut him down to size a bit, but it failed to convince me that he was wrong.

Seventeen years later, I'm at the age that a lot of American men start families. I still agree with Allen's line. And I often get responses like Mia Farrow's.

Consider the world American children are born into: A rapidly evaporating water supply; food crises around the world; unaffordable health care; uncertain employment, even with advanced degrees and years of experience; wars upon wars, both domestic and foreign; global warming...

Having kids today feels less like giving the gift of life than damning a life to toil and grief. The probable effects of climate change alone are enough to send me to the doctor for a swift vasectomy. It makes me wonder how our species ever survived the Middle Ages, or how entire populations even today continue to procreate despite the seemingly insurmountable problems they face -- famine, disease, genocide, poverty, prejudice.

There is, of course, a major difference between those struggling groups and myself: I can choose not to have kids. Not only do I have access to birth control, but I do not need to produce offspring for the sake of my own livelihood. In many cultures, children carry on the family's work and ensure financial security for the elders when they grow old. As some have argued, having children may be the only form of wealth some people will ever know. I have never known such pressures.

I realize that humans need to reproduce or we're doomed as a species. But maybe we'll be doomed even faster if we continue to procreate as rapidly as we do now.

Perhaps Timothy Leary was correct, and the natural order of things really is for humans to ruin this planet and relocate to idyllic space colonies, leaving Earth behind like an innocent, broken eggshell. But doesn't that only reinforce my point? After all, the passage on Wall-E-like spaceships can't be cheap. What are all the people who can't afford a ticket to do?

[Image: GreenDiary.com]