Choice, Cosmic Fertility, and Human Life

Abstract A movement that calls itself “child free by choice” has gained popular traction yet has received little philosophical response. In this paper, I suggest that given facts about the human body and action, it would be surprising that the CFBC lifestyle would be a choice in the way its adherents conceive of it. I first attempt to offer a strong case for why one might choose to be child-free. Then I examine the concept of choice itself and question whether child-bearing squarely fits within the bounds of human freedom. I conclude that we should take seriously the ways in which human beings fit into a cosmic picture of fertility, wherein life in all its forms seeks to diffuse and propagate itself, one in which the reverence for the givenness of human life ought to remain paramount in order to preserve a proper relation of man to himself and to his Creator.