Better Never to Have Been

In this foundational work of antinatalist philosophy, David Benatar builds a rigorous case for the view that bringing new life into existence is always a harm.

Drawing on asymmetry theory — the idea that the absence of pain is good even if no one experiences it, while the absence of pleasure is not bad unless someone is deprived of it — and an argument from philosophical pessimism about how humans systematically underestimate suffering in favor of fleeting pleasures, Benatar argues that non-existence is preferable to a life inevitably marked by loss.

A landmark text for anyone interested in ethics, mortality, or the question of why we choose to create new lives.