A big part of the parenting experience involves endless surprises from what the kids do and say. I mean, you think there’s an age when their ability to surprise you will wane a bit, but not so much.
However, kids do eventually get to an age where they think they know everything. But guess what? Parents are full of surprises, too. They were kids once, too, and they’ve seen and heard so much more than you’d expect. I think Raphael Samuel is still learning some things about his folks.
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Raphael Samuel made headlines recently after saying he was suing his parents because they didn’t get his consent before he was born.
Samuel is a Mumbai-based anti-natalist who believes that it’s wrong to bring kids into the world and subject them to a lifetime of suffering.
However, he also says that his own life doesn’t necessarily reflect that.
“I love my parents, and we have a great relationship, but they had me for their joy and their pleasure.”
“My life has been amazing, but I don’t see why I should put another life through the rigamarole of school and finding a career, especially when they didn’t ask to exist,” he told ThePrint .
His anti-natalist views go against the pro-motherhood, pro-procreation culture in India.
“I want to tell all Indian kids that they don’t owe their parents anything,” he says.
“Other Indian people must know that it is an option not to have children, and to ask your parents for an explanation as to why they gave birth to you.”
Typically, Indian culture values familial ties and encourages the growth of family trees. It isn’t uncommon for up to three or four generations of a family to live in one household.
Samuel broadcasts his anti-natalist messages on a Facebook page and YouTube channel.
In the images he posts, he wears a large, obviously fake beard and sunglasses, and includes messages like “Isn’t forcing a child into this world and forcing it to have a career kidnapping and slavery?”
He even goes so far as to blame a myriad of everyday struggles on his parent’s decision to conceive him.
Although it might seem a bit outlandish to most, his page has over 3000 likes, and more than 4000 followers — so he isn’t the only one.
In fact, fans of his hot take on procreation have left dozens of comments on his page with words of support.
Praise like, “Bet you didn’t think so many people felt like you. I’ve agreed with everything I’ve read so far. People think I’m a freak when I talk like this – but they can’t argue against it” fill the comment section.
Obviously, not everyone is convinced his logic is sound.
One commenter left a thought-provoking perspective, “Your parents did not choose you to be born. Do you know how many sperms were released? You fought to reach the egg first and you won. You chose your parents and not the other way around.”
Well, Samuel’s mother, Kavita Karnad Samuel, made a statement after her son’s beliefs and lawsuit started making headlines.
Both of Samuel’s parents are lawyers, and Kavita made a lawyerly argument in her statement to The Mirror , saying that “I must admire my son’s temerity to want to take his parents to court knowing both of us are lawyers.”
“And if Raphael could come up with a rational explanation as to how we could have sought his consent to be born, I will accept my fault.”
For a mother being blamed for having her child without consent, she is impressively level-headed about the situation.
Kavita also wanted to clear up what she feels are some misconceptions about her son.
She says that in the coverage he’s recieved, “His belief in anti-natalism, his concern for the burden on Earth’s resources due to needless life, his sensitivity toward the pain experienced unwittingly by children while growing up and so much more has been ruefully forgotten.”
Samuel said his decision to sue his parents was based on the belief that the world would be a much better place without human beings in it.
The argument is actually true — humans are definitely behind some of the worst damage to this Earth, both morally and physically.
But how would someone get an unborn baby’s consent to do anything? Don’t parents make decisions for their kids until they’re legally adults, at age 18?
His mother also says that she’s “very happy that my son has grown up into a fearless, independent-thinking young man.”
Nevertheless, Raphael told the BBC that after he told his parents of his plans to sue them, “She said that’s fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on you. I will destroy you in court.”
So far, Raphael hasn’t made his lawsuit official.
He’s still looking for a lawyer to take his case. “I know it’s going to be thrown out because no judge would hear it,” he said. “But I do want to file a case because I want to make a point.”
h/t BBC