Personally, I wonder if the genetic factors mentioned in the OP weren’t there if the decision would be different? Perhaps not. I made my choices for my reasons and because nothing is certain. The world could end before I type this or in a given period of time. We can estimate, but we cannot know. I do find it very weird how many people want to preach about not having children though. I’ve come across it a lot recently. Partly I think I feel that because as someone who was adopted and has worked with traumatised children (and adults), I find it is almost never those people asking and querying who are actively attempting to improve things in the world. For example, most say ‘I wanted kids but didn’t have them because It’s too bad for the environment/too hard for kids to go through this life when global warming is... etc etc’, but few seem to have considered becoming a parent through adoption (often very tough, but very eco friendly) or a foster carer. I also find they often aren’t making any huge effort to be super eco friendly. Obviously those things are blanket statements, there will always be exceptions, so OP forgive me if you’re someone who does, but it is something I’ve noted. I find it strange that it’s difficult to comprehend why someone would generally want children. Firstly, we are a social species based on interacting with each other. That’s our strength as a mammal and one we have continued to grow with as a species to the point we have these wonderfully complex languages and can describe things we’ve never even seen in real life. We thrive on relationships and the parent child relationship is one of those. Secondly, considering how much of the world don’t appreciate climate change etc. its hardly surprising that lots of people have children without it crossing their minds.
Thirdly, it’s quite a westernised question. There are many terrible things that face the human race and in the western world, we are lucky to not have to face some of these and for a majority of us to have to face few of the horrors that others face. Again, there are exceptions, but the majority of the UK is not threatened by starvation with our children dying, we can usually formula feed without too much issue if our breast milk dries up, we can go to town without our children witnessing a Neighbour being stoned etc. Even in very difficult situations, some of us as a race tend to keep having children (Not everyone at all, some make huge efforts to get hold of medication and attempt to prevent or end pregnancy), but the lack of direct threat in places like the UK etc. does not pressurise us to stop.
Anyway, one of things I think is that we never know when we’ll go through trauma. We also do not, by not having children, protect ourselves or others from trauma. It would be traumatic watching the human race die out, because someone somewhere would be ‘the last’. The world ending due to climate change may change people’s minds as it gets closer and very obvious, but the reality is that whether lots of people are dying together or one person close to you dies, that’s traumatic. Most of the time, trauma therapy tries to remind you that you cannot go through life avoiding everything that makes life worth living to attempt to avoid experiencing more trauma. You can take sensible precautions to avoid it, but you can’t stop following what you long for in your life and for some people who’ve longed for children, it’s traumatic not to experience parenthood.
I’ll be quiet now. This post ended up being crazily long.