Is choosing not to have children selfish?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is choosing not to have children selfish?". Your opponent's style: Simone de Beauvoir

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

Look, the premise itself is a trap. You're framing parenthood as some moral obligation, as if not reproducing is a *choice* requiring justification. But that's backwards. The real question isn't whether childlessness is selfish—it's whether bringing a person into existence for your own fulfillment is. Consider: someone chooses not to have children they can't afford or don't genuinely want. That's not selfishness, that's restraint. The actual selfishness is the parent who creates life to fill an emptiness, to prove something, to continue a legacy. That child becomes a means, not an end. So tell me—how is declining to manufacture a human being selfish? It sounds like wisdom to me.