Selfishness and kids

Is there any non-selfish reason to decide to have a kid?

That's my opening question, but this blog is about Bree Walker. For those of you who do not know who she is, Bree is a broadcast journalist who used to be married to boxing announcer Jim Lampley. As an aside, she used to be very beautiful until she ruined herself through plastic surgery:

http://www.gawker.com/news/bree_walker.jpg

Anyway, she has a rare disease called ectrodactyly which has fused together her fingers and her toes. Years ago, she decided to have children despite the fact that there would be a 50% chance that the condition would be passed on. Well, it was. Both her children have it and they have undergone more than a dozen surgeries to unfuse their digits.

In response to criticism of her choice, she says she'd like to see anyone look her children in the face and tell them they don't deserve to live. Well, of course they deserve to live now that they exist. The question is whether or not she should have had kids in the first place. That is an important difference. Not existing is not a tragedy. Since I'm alive, I'm glad that I exist and I hope to exist for a long time. However, if I never existed, it wouldn't matter to me because I would not exist to care! I spent most of the history of the universe not-existing and it didn't bother me one bit.

The point is that she created these children despite 50% odds. I'm sure she hoped they wouldn't have the disease because they've had surgeries to correct it--obviously she considers it a "problem" that needs to be "fixed."

Why did she have kids despite the 50% chance? Because of selfishness. She wanted kids and nothing was going to stop her. She cared more about her own desire to be a parent than the problems her kids would have. She could have adopted, but no, she wanted children of HER OWN making. Tell me that's not selfish.

This is old news, by the way. Her kids are 16 and 13 and she did come under fire at the time. But it also brings me to my opening question. Is there any non-selfish reason to decide to have children? Oh wait--I just thought of one--you could have children specifically because you want to give them up for adoption to parents who can't have kids of their own. I'd say don't bother, but that is a non-selfish reason. Can anyone think of any other altruistic reasons?

Anyone care to defend Bree Walker?