On the dubious validity of personal procreation

There is a global body of research devoted to the study of the habits we have cultivated over time, in the nurturing of our young. Any and all scientific study related to the topic of the upbringing of our children appears almost instantaneously in the mainstream media because it is of constant relevance to our lives. In the modern world it is easy enough to see the mistakes we have made in this regard, proving emphatically evident if we subscribe to the minimum base life expectancy rates in most countries, that the most we can still do is hang our heads in shame and talk about destiny or God’s will. Whether we have been successful or not in the raising of our children is defined by the indisputable corroboration of the values laid down by society and economics that we have no option but to hold true. A progenitorial success is now defined - down to the last zero - by a cumulative dollar value and the goodwill gained from a life lived… and there is no disputing it, wherever we turn.
A typical case is when a couple have what is known as a love child… and then scramble to keep up with the times they have for so long neglected, or at least since they first achieved gainful employment, in a desperate attempt to be seen as good parents. (These days, we can only hope that such individuals are married if they both live in India.) The pros and cons of such a circumstance have been argued to the death by religious, social and pharmaceutical lobbyist-groups across the east and west and, as such, it is a lost cause to indulge it in a monologue such as this.
The alternate case is when the decision to have a child or children is actively made by both individuals involved in a strong and mutually beneficial relationship – A decision that is come about by the negation of the severe complexities and psychological skirmishes implicit in its educated enactment.
- Firstly, that a modern self-sufficient couple would not like to be seen as being in any way caste or community conscious… and if that was the case why didn’t they take advantage of the myriad adoption schemes involving poor luckless infants that have been abandoned at, or soon after, birth?
- Secondly, such a couple will need to hold to the belief that the world is becoming a better place. And where is the evidence of that in a world where terrorism, disease and market forces lay the best laid plans (of mice and men) to ruin, in the blink of an eye?

Imagine that we had children like there was no tomorrow - a statement that is, in and of itself, an impossibility - because we have to believe that there is going to be a future if we decide to invest something of ourselves in it. We are told in this country that it is a good thing we are so populous because the economic benefits of possessing a large young population outweigh the liabilities of a futuristic dread of scarcity and rationing we can see the beginnings of even today. This discussion, though, also belongs in a different argument – one that has already taken up the minds and hearts of the same theorists responsible for the long drawn out economic crisis we are now experiencing.

But the real question being asked here is whether pro-active decision-making does take place when children are born today… and whether decision-making as a concept related to procreation does still hold, in the same way it did to the earlier generation.