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"Do your really want to have a baby? This provocative question is examined by the 23 authorities contributing to this volume. What we don't know about parenthood can - and has - hurt us, and we are all subject to the scores of unseen pressures and hidden forces that urge young people to have babies, regardless of personal preference or even competence. No one is actually forced to have children in our society and we continue to think of ourselves as free. And yet, as each article in this collection convincingly argues, the compulsions are there. Try choosing not to have children and you become a lightning rod that attracts every argument - religious, social, and psychological - in favor of parenthood. What of a woman who is not advanced in her career in expectation of the children she must one day bear? Or the man who is thought a bad job risk because the lack of family pictures on his desk indicates instability? And what of the couple who is judged selfish, immature, and socially unacceptable simply because they refuse to have children? Businesses coax, parents cajole, the army encourages, and Uncle Sam throws in a small financial reward for being a parent which is at the same time, a financial penalty for not having a child. This is not a book that warns against having children. It is, instead, a unique volume that insists it is time we realize that motives for parenthood are individual, not universal, and the decision to procreate must be made by each individual and by every couple in the light of their own needs, preferences, and abilities. " --