āIn coming into existence, we are guaranteed to suffer harms. The nature and magnitude of those harms vary from person to person. However, it is more common than not for these harms to include formidable ones: grinding poverty (and it associated costs), chronic pain, disability, disease, trauma, shame, loneliness, unhappiness, frailty, and decrepitude. Sometimes, these mark an entire life. Other times, they begin to intrude into a life that was previously devoid of them. For example, no matter how youthfully robust one may be now, a time will come when one will become enfeebled, unless something else gets one first. Although there are some things we can do to prevent or delay some of these harms, our fate, to a considerable extent, is out of our control. We may attempt to preserve our health, but all we can do thereby is reduce, not eliminate, the risks. Therefor, we have some, but relatively little, control over whether these harms will befall us. The degree to which we have control over whether our lives have terrestrial meaning varies, depending on whether the terrestrial meaning is more or less expansive. The more expansive the meaning, the less control we have. We have absolutely no control over the fact of our cosmic insignificance. The only actions that could have guaranteed that we not suffer these fates are actions over which we had no control, namely, the actions that would have prevented us from coming into existence. These actions were within the control of our parents (and sometimes others), but never within out control. Thus, we are involuntary brought into a cosmically insignificant existence that bears considerable risk of serious harm. We did not and could not consent to our coming into existence. Nor can we ever wrest this control from those who exercised it. However, it is still possible to decide whether to terminate oneās existence. That, of course, is a quite different sort of decision from a decision to bring somebody into being. When a person is not brought into existence, there is no cost for that person, for she never exists. Those who do not exist have no interest in coming into existence. By contrast, once one has come into existence, one typically has an interest in continuing to exist.ā
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