Raphael Samuel, 27, recently filed a lawsuit against his parents over allegations that they gave birth to him without his consent. As a result of his parent’s actions, they have allegedly forced him to live in a world full of suffering.
Raphael Samuel, 27, is a Mumbai businessman suing his parents for giving birth to him. In his suit, he argues that children aren’t “asked to be brought into a world full of misery.” He further states in his suit that if “children didn’t ask to be born, why do they have to put up with lifelong suffering?” The suffering he is referring to includes “wars, being stuck in traffic, working or simply doing something they don’t want.”
Many of Samuel’s social media posts are critical of parents and include the hashtag #ParentsAreHypocrites. Taglines on his posts vary between “your parents had you instead of a toy or a dog,” “someone had you for their pleasure,” and “you owe them [parents] nothing.” He also has a YouTube channel on which he has posted many videos explaining why he is suing his parents. For example, one of the videos is entitled, ‘I’m suing my parents for YOU!!!’ In another more recent video posted on Tuesday, he says:
“I want people to understand that they do not owe their parents anything and that if we are born without our consent then we should be maintained for the rest of our life. We should be paid to live by them [parents].”
In the same video, Samuel argues that whether “parents planned their children or not, their offspring were not asked” to be born. He says, “Something that was not your decision, you cannot be responsible for.”
Samuel created his Facebook page, Nihilanand, last year and uses it as a platform to promote his belief, “which is rooted in what’s called anti-natalism.” Anti-natalism argues that “life is so full of misery that people should stop reproducing altogether.”
Despite his beliefs, many people on social media have expressed confusion over his social media posts and videos. Some even wonder if the lawsuit against his parents is a prank and other “baffled reactions have come from across the world.” One person tweeted, “Parents should counter sue for the $[money] it cost to raise him.” Others wrote that the “judge hopefully will throw it out or that judge is just as looney!”
Others, including Rebecca Zamon, a HuffPost Canada senior editor, simply called Samuel a ‘troll’ and thinks he’s “just having some fun.” However, she also believes there may be other motives. When commenting on the matter, she said,
“He’s asking people to take a look at their lives and there’s a whole part of his campaign that asks people to look at the plants, animals and the earth and to look at the resources that we use as more and more people are born. If it makes a couple of people think about how they use the resources in their lives … I think he’ll think that’s a success.”
Samuel has so far pushed back against the negative comments and criticism, saying people are “free to criticize him because he doesn’t care.”
How have his parents reacted to the pending lawsuit, though? Well, it turns out both his parents are lawyers. When informed of the suit, his mother reportedly “took it very well,” and his father is “still warming up to the idea.” In a statement to BBC News, his mother, Kavita Karnad Samuel, said:
“I must admire my son’s temerity to want to take his parents to court knowing both of us are lawyers. And if Raphael could come up with a rational explanation as to how we could have sought his consent to be born, I will accept my fault.”
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