Is Life Worth Living

In Peter Singer’s blog post, “Should This Be the Last Generation,” he makes some interesting claims and arguments. When I first read through his post I thought, “This guy is insane!” However once I re-read it I realized all Singer was doing was asking a simple question, Is life worth living?

I disagreed with most of Singer’s arguments because they were somewhat extreme. Within the blog post the quote that stood out to me the most was, “we could party our way into extinction!” To me, this quote was very sarcastic and in some way made me laugh. I am glad that the author threw in some humor because if he had not, I would have thought he was insane. Partying our way into extinction sounds like a blast, but is it really what we want in the end? I would like to interview Singer and ask him where he thought of this ideal and what his true thoughts are on the topic. Most of the readers’ comments were pro-life and each one offered me a new insight on the subject. Ro Mason’s comment said, “the best answer is to have few children and teach them well and love them well.” This made me realize that the best solution is to have fewer children so that we improve ourselves environmentally and socially.

Although I did not agree with his ideals, Singer did make many valid points. However, the argument I agreed with most in his article was the thought experiment regarding climate change. As of now society is very concerned with the environment’s well-being and we are doing all we can to save the environment, “but the people who will be most severely harmed by climate change have not yet been conceived.” It blew my mind to think that if there were no more future generations, we would not have to feel guilty or worried about the deteriorating environment and its effects on the human race.

My answer to the question, “Is life worth living,” is yes. Every human being encounters suffering and joy; there is no way to avoid that, it is just human nature. Sure, being the last generation on earth would be somewhat special, but I feel most of those “last generation humans” would be unsatisfied. Most couples conceive children so that they can start a family and begin a new chapter in their life. In the readers’ comments section of the blog David Sarasota pointed out that “life is something to do. Having children is something to do and people find worth in doing things.” Without children people would have nothing to do and therefore no worth. If we are going to become extinct anyways in the future, why not just have as many kids as we desire and continue living our lives? However, only live life in a way from which we “learn from our past mistakes and bring about a world in which there is far less suffering than there is now.”