THE KINDEST CUT

Bob

Oahu, June 11, 2001

My wife and I are responsible for bringing five children too many to this planet.

We have no children between us and never will.

We have the type of relationship that started out great and keeps getting better all the time. We feel no need to breed in order to bring us “to the next level.”

We believe that a strong physical relationship is an integral part of a strong spiritual relationship between a man and a woman. We also believe that there are already about six billion humans too many on the planet. Neither of us like the idea of long term birth control pill use. Neither of us like the way condoms feel. Neither of us particularly like the idea of surgical sterilization but we both agreed to through with it. We decided that we would both get surgically sterilized in order to stand behind our convictions regarding the runaway nature of the human species. We also didn’t want either of us to feel like a martyr.

I had a vasectomy performed three days ago.

It was a lot more uncomfortable mentally than it was physically. The procedure was done with local anesthetic in about forty-five minutes. Thee was very little sensation during the procedure and there has been very little discomfort resulting from the procedure. The main thought I have had since the vasectomy was – Why didn’t I do this years ago?

I could have saved my wife years of chemical abuse from birth control pills as well as the requisite doctor visit each time to get the prescription. I could have precluded the entrance into the world of more beings to add to the swelling population. I could have prevented the certain death of the children I fathered.

In the aftermath of the surgery, I have encouraged my wife to cancel her scheduled tubal ligation and I am looking forward to resuming our physical relationship without the guilt associated with making birth control my wife’s problem. 

I would encourage any man who doesn’t want to father another child to consider a vasectomy – and take the pressure off the woman in their life.