Benatar's asymmetry argument

Benatar's asymmetry argument for antinatalism is an argument based on the difference between harms and benefits viewed in two scenarios — when the person in question exists and when the person in question never exists. It indicates that even if the person in question lives a happy, fulfilling life, happiness is fleeting, fragile, and ultimately something that must be "let go of". The argument, introduced by David Benatar in his 2006 book, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, aims to establish that coming into existence is always a harm for the one who's coming into the world. It suggests that while a happy life is better than a miserable one, even the best human lives are "very bad" and not worth starting. His philosophy does not advocate suicide, but rather that the "irrevocable harm" of existence should never be inflicted on a new person.