More Co-parents, Fewer Children: Multiparenting and Sustainable Population

Some philosophers argue that we should limit procreation-for instance, to one child per person or one child per couple-in order to reduce our aggregate carbon footprint.I provide additional support to the claim that population size is a matter of justice, by explaining that we have a duty of justice towards the current generation of children to pass on to them a sustainable population.But instead of, or, more likely, alongside with, having fewer children in in each family, we could also create families with more than two parents.I explore this possibility by pointing out the ways in which multi-parenting can advance children's interests: in higher levels of well-being, in non-monopolistic child-rearing, and in a future opportunity to become themselves parents.