Is it better to exist than never to have come into the world? Bad things happen to all of us. It is an inevitable characteristic of humanity. When we are born, we are born to suffer. What if we were never born? What if we had never been introduced to this world of inevitable hardship? Would we be better off? Such thoughts are entertained by David Benatar in his essay "Why it is better never to come into existence" (Benatar, 1997) - who, rather disturbingly for his readers, argues that it is rational to think that it is not better to exist than never having come into existence. In an attempt to understand this title question, I will embark on an in-depth analysis of Benatar's argument, as I believe it offers one of the strongest cases against existence. I will begin by outlining his argument, secondly identifying two key assumptions, and finally attempting to demonstrate that Benatar's argument is only as strong as one takes a hedonic approach to life, i.e. judging pleasure (and the absence of pain ) as the greatest value of life. Benatar's Asymmetry Argument In "Why It Is Better Never to Come into Existence" (Benatar, 1997), David Benatar argues that by bringing a person into existence, you harm him, and therefore bringing someone into existence is wrong . This notion is based on a subtle distinction between weighing pain and pleasure within the life of an already existing being and weighing pain and pleasure for a non-being. It is Benatar's belief that when people defend the idea that it is better to exist than exist. have never existed, they do so using arguments that appeal to pleasures that overcome pain. Let's take for example the expression it is better to have loved and lost than to have n...... middle of paper...... If instead we adopt an approach similar to Nozick and then Nagel that experience itself gives existence meaning and purpose, then we come to the conclusion that existence is better than non-existence. Neither approach is without its flaws, and accepting one or the other carries a certain degree of pungency. So in conclusion I would like to say that it is better to exist than never to have come into existence to the extent that one does not define one's life in terms of pain and pleasure, but by the ability to have authentic experiences. I would rather exist than never have come into the world because I value my ability to experience above any other value in my life - and if I had never come into the world I would not have had this privilege. However, with this acceptance I must also accept that I have a duty to make people exist.