What do our lives mean as our genetic lines go extinct? Vestiges of what we amassed and who we were remain, but not in the form of offspring we did not have.

Let’s start by following the money. The Federal Reserve estimates the average net worth of a couple with no kids is $1,867,480, compared to $1,151,730 for a couple with kids.

Finances tell only part of the story. Women without kids enjoy better health and fewer disabilities than women with kids.

Given those resources, what do we leave behind when we die?

There’s also the existential question about the purpose of our having lived at all. If our lives have made a difference, what form does that difference take when we no longer walk the Earth? How do we want to be remembered? And by whom?

While we can fret over the details of e

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