in sufficient aggregate, they are deadly

Lionel Shriver writes about being childless, interviews two of her childless friends and look at how their individual life gains combine to produce an 'economic, cultural and moral disaster'.

As we age - oh, so reluctantly! - we are apt to look back on our pasts and ask not 'Did I serve family, God and country?' but 'Did I ever get to Cuba, or run a marathon? Did I take up landscape painting? Was I fat?'

She's also the author of We Need To Talk About Kevin, a book about a mother who has a horrible kid and figures out it is OK to hate your child. As you can guess, she's got a lot of negative attention for this.