Had you been able to choose whether or not to be born, what would your choice have been?

Absolutely. The places and things that I have experienced have been amazing!

No, thank you. My parents should have had only 2 kids, not 8. (I was #3)

Is this a question of before or after I was born? Before I would not have existed to answer the question one way or the other. And after, my answer would be biased by my aversion to dying.

”I am not referring to the family you were born into”

I’m confused. Would we have chosen to be born, not knowing what was ahead, or would we have chosen to be born, knowing what was to come?

Rolling the dice, I’d choose birth.
Knowing the family I’d be born to, I’d choose not.

I’ve suffered depression and anxiety almost all my life, and while I’ve never been suicidal (thank goodness, or I wouldn’t be here today) I’ve often wished that I simply hadn’t been born. It would have been so much better for many people if I had never existed.

@Seek it would have been better for you, but not for others!

I don’t think my reasoning skills were up to such a hard choice at the time.

I harbor no misconceptions about the amount I’ve so far contributed to society. Apart from making a pretty awesome kid, all I did by being born was cement together a relationship that was a match made in hell, which spawned two more kids to be raised in that household, and destroyed my father’s life leading to depression and alcoholism, and then him falling off the face of the earth and leaving his mother and five siblings (as well as his three kids and many more people) missing the hell out of him and wondering what happened to him.

My parents got married because I was conceived. And that was the beginning of the end.

I would want to be born, though I am not sure I would want to relive my life.

Nah.

Yes.

Life is wonderful.

I suffered abuse as a child. I am a recovered alcoholic (The point being I found life so ghastly I had to anesthetize myself for decades). I have attempted suicide after getting sober. I have been inpatient in 2 psych wards. I have a mental illness. I know poverty. I am a gay man in a world that pays lip service to gay rights.

Knowing all that in advance, I would opt for life. It’s wonderful!

How can I say that? I did the hard work through many avenues such as therapy and meditation to confront my many hells, own them, and release them. I healed.

You can heal, too.

Yes.

Yes. I enjoy life – even the shitty parts. I’d definitely choose to be here.

Yes, of course, yes!!
Maybe i’d have the silver spon removed from my entitled gob, I do relish a challenge

I think I would have chosen to skip this time around and wait for the next one.

Have you ever wondered if time is linear and we can only be reincarnated into a future life and not what we would, at this point, consider an earlier age? I mean like if I die now and am reincarnated in the year 1143 a.d. as opposed to 2043 a.d.

Yes, I am more concerned with being able to choose my death, when, how and for whatever reasons I so choose.