So file this one under the, “seriously, WTF?!” category of bizarre viral internet news, because this story has all sorts of glorious insanity to it. As a (snarky) young kid, I remember my parents telling me I had to do something I didn’t feel like doing because it was one of their rules, and my retort was, “Well, I didn’t ASK to be born!”
Ever uttered that line as a kid?
Well, 27-year-old Raphael Samuel of Mumbai, India isn’t a kid anymore, but he took this line and ran with it- and by “ran with it”, I mean, he ran right to his local court of law with plans to file a lawsuit against his parents.
His reason for wanting to sue his folks boils down to, as British newspaper Mirror states:
they did not ask for his consent to bring him into the world, it is reported.
Raphael’s purpose is not just to destroy any feelings of good will between him and his poor parents. He’s a crusader, people!
He’s championing his own passionate cause, which is “anti-natalism”.
Simply put, he’s against birth. All of it.
He disapproves of his own birth, your birth, your kids’ births, and all of the rest of mankind that insists on selfishly making babies and populating the world.
His theory boils down to this: parents don’t have the right to give birth if a child has not agreed to being born.
Oh, yes. This kind of bizarre mental fuckery is exactly why some people don’t deserve nice things like their own Facebook page.
“Why should I suffer?” which is (logically) followed by “Why must I be stuck in traffic?”.
Now granted, being stuck in traffic can FEEL like suffering, especially here in New York, but I’m not sure it’s the kind of suffering that would make me loathe my very existence. Or blame my parents for my immense, vehicular-related suffering.
Samuel explained that despite his plans to sue his parents, he actually has a decent relationship with them (I’m thinking “did” once those legal papers arrive at their door).
His purpose in taking legal action is to make the point that he didn’t ASK to exist, so they had no right to MAKE him exist.
As he describes while interviewed by The Print:
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.
Oh, totally, Raphael. School and a career are major downers, and who better to blame for making you deal with all that “rigamarole” than your folks?
Non-existence sounds so much better than having to show up to first-period math. Or to have your parents tell you to take out the trash. Total bummer.
Raphael is not alone in his anti-natalist fervor; a few fellow Indians have adopted his cause as their own, too, and (as per their statement in India’s The Print) suggest that:
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.
Bahaha! “Ask your parents for an explanation as to why they gave birth to you.” Raphael Samuel implies that parents need to justify why they’ve had their children, TO their children.
Imagine the vast array of responses to that one?? Everything from, “We knew we needed your precious soul in our family.” to “Well, your mom drank too much White Zinfandel that night, and she gets really horny when she’s been drinking, so…”
To each his own, so if Raphael Samuel does not want to have children, that’s perfectly acceptable.
But for him to try to convince others that they should not have kids- that to do so is selfish & destructive- is not your business, my man.
And to sue your own parents in a cheap attempt to gain attention for your cause? Well, let’s just say that if my adult kid tried to sue me for giving him the gift of life and then sacrificing so much to give him a great life, the only kind of legal action you’d see would be me being hauled off to jail for kicking his self-entitled ass.
Then I’d delete his Facebook page- just saying…
Feel free to check him out below for shits and giggles!