Halifax

That's a rather cynical view of human nature. And that really is where this issue of whether it is right and proper is decided. I do not subscribe to a reductionist theory of evolutionary biology. We are the product of a scientific process, yes, but that process is itself a product, and therefore we have a purpose beyond the mere propagation of genes. Now, of course there isn't such as a thing as a 100% pure, totally selfless motive, but the admixture of selfishness with selflessness does not mean that selfishness is somehow the dominant and default factor.

I'm not saying that a person can't be. I'm saying that a person shouldn't. And again, that's not some dictate of my own or matter of personal preference on your part. It's inherent in the nature of being human. Nor am I putting parents in some special category. All I'm saying is that obsession with raising children, in making children one's sole object and consummate desire, is no better than taking money, power, or pleasure to be that sole object and desire. But of course, I am criticizing an extreme, so my criticism would doubtlessly need to be moderated to the same degree to which that extreme is modified in practice. Again, there are no pure or unmixed motives, in either direction.

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Philosopher-in-Training

“The present writer…writes because for him it is a luxury which becomes the more agreeable and more evident, the fewer there are who buy and read what he writes.”
—Søren Kierkegaard