Welcome Silvia!

I'm new too, just joined about 30 seconds ago. You ask if anyone here has really ended their fertile life without caving in and having a kid? That would be me, for one. I'm almost 54. Haven't reproduced yet, never wanted to, don't plan to, and have no regrets about that whatsoever. My reasons were several: First--I detest the company of children! Second--Why be held hostage to parental responsibility when life is so much simpler and easier without it? Third--I could never believe that little hole would be big enough to push a seven or eight pound object through, no matter how slippery with blood and mucus that object happened to be. Coitus itself never interested me much for a similar reason; to *hell* with experiencing its painful and messy consequences as well. Fourth--the human race has almost reached the FINISH line, because of its unmitigated enthusiasm for breeding. It is taking many innocent species down with it. I didn't want to contribute to that. I wanted to help SAVE the earth, not choke it to death.

We were told forty years ago to stabilize our population or face the consequences. Guess what? In that time we DOUBLED our population, and now no less an authority than James Lovelock is certain global climate change is past the point of no return and that human civilization as we know it faces certain extinction within a decade or two. It may take even less time if all the pollinator bees die. I hope this prognosis is premature and that we still have a chance to stop the process and save this planet, but I am not optimistic. And this damage is what OUR species has done, because of the way we changed the earth in order to have the things we wanted.

We weren't wrong to want the things we wanted. It was human to want them. It was human to invent them. Animals don't invent, they simply live by the patterns laid out for them by nature and instinct. They don't change anything. Humans do that. We have a drive to do that. We weren't wrong to want the kind of life we created. We simply weren't able to have it. The experiment failed. The human spirit is incompatible with matter. It is probable there's little to no future for our species on this planet. That's why, more than ever, choosing to have children is incomprehensible to me. I see it as the most selfish and irresponsible act possible at this point in time.

But for people who love children--If anyone concerned for the planet still has any drive to leave traces and pass along any culture or teaching, why not ADOPT a child? Who knows, maybe we'll fix the problems, maybe our civilization will continue. If you adopt an unwanted child, you'll help fix someone else's mistake, and launch an environmentally-educated human into the future and you won't be contributing to the population bomb. And if our civilization goes down anyway, at least your adopted child will have someone like you loving it to the very end.

There, now--see? It's really a good thing I didn't have children. Imagine how they'd have turned out with a snarling old prophet of doom like me for a mother?

Hi!!!! I'm also new!!! You say you wanted to kow average ages of members? Well, I'm 14, so.......Yeah. My brother, who's 20, showed me the VHEMT site a while ago and I decided to become a volunteer today. It shouldn't be to hard. I like kids an' all, but I think I'd prefer to adopt rather than create more so more will go hungry. It's the smart thing to do, really. Well, Ees anano retal!!!! ...that means see you later.

Hi, I'm new here two, Male 38, always had a sense that any being that I'd love as much as a child shouldn't be here. Have long been interested in Human Extinction as a reading topic. It's nice to find a group of people who have some similar sentiments. Notice most of the posts are pretty old - hope I'm not missing out on communicating?

Chuck Fries
Kansas City, MO
USA