Babies in Baghdad

I've got a post today at Talking Philosophy. It starts:

An article in the paper caught my attention recently. It said the infant mortality rate in Baghdad was way, way up. Obstetricians are leaving Iraq and there’s nobody around to attend births. That was no huge surprise but what did seem amazing was the background fact—people in Baghdad are still having babies!

It’s just as surprising to notice the babies in pictures of Darfur refugees. People who live in extreme poverty, who have next to nothing to offer their children, still have babies (and a lot of them).

I’m not sitting around “tsk-tsk”ing about other people’s procreational decisions. What draws me to this topic is how puzzling it is whether it is or isn’t wrong to have a baby in a bad situation.

The rest is here.