> I didn't ask to be born therefore I have no duties to you or to anyone other than myself. I reject the form of this claim. Duty is precisely the kind of thin

> I didn't ask to be born therefore I have no duties to you or to anyone other than myself. I reject the form of this claim. Duty is precisely the kind of thing you owe due to your continued existence. It has nothing to do with your lack of choice in springing yourself into existence to whatever place you were born. If you want to reject the notion of duty, logically speaking, I think you'll need another argument, but I suspect it won't be based in anything resembling ethics as we know it -- I suspect the only logically valid arguments against duty presuppose that only one individual matters (the individual being you, of course, that most important of all beings). > I didn't ask to be born therefore I have no duties to you or to anyone other than myself. You may not feel such a duty. But it doesn't mean such a worldview is in your own rational self-interest. People in society aren't overly pleased by those who are overly individualistic. When people notice others who aren't contributing much, it can have negative consequences. Sure, free riding happens, but it doesn't make it ethical.