The quote is from the article and not Rand:
Her notion of a "right to life" begins and ends with the individual. In this sense, "right to life" means the right of the individual to pursue, through the rational use of his power of choice, whatever he needs in order to sustain and cultivate his existence. "An organism's life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is the good, that which threatens it is evil." As Rand has John Galt tell her readers, "There is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or nonexistence." Man's existence must stay in existence. This is the mandate of the individual and the utility of the virtue of selfishness. Non-existence is the result of altruism and careens toward death. Making sacrifices for one's born or unborn children, one's elderly parents or other family members becomes anathema for Ayn Rand. She wants a Culture of Life to emerge, but she envisions that culture solely in terms of individuals choosing selfishly, the private goods of their own existence. If ever the anthem for a pro-choice philosophy has been recorded, it comes from the pen of Ayn Rand: "Man has to be man – by choice; he has to hold his life as a value – by choice; he has to learn to sustain it – by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practise his virtues – by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality."
Surely Rand recognized the mortality of the human individual, which implies that not only altruism, but human existence itself careens toward death. So, if human existence matters, then she must have recognized that children represent the only chance of a continued existence. If we are not concerned with the continued existence of our progeny, and our own existence is destined to end; then existence itself seems futile. She must have recognized that within the parameters of her own existence there was just about zero possibility of extending the life of the individual across even 2 centuries. Yet, the work of individuals, across generations, may allow a dramatic extension of the length of an individual's life. Did she really consider that cross-generational march toward an extended existence to be pointless? Isn't it rational to accept that consciousness itself has a value, and working toward the continued existence of consciousness has a value?
I read
Atlas Shrugged when I was 18. Even then I recognized that Rand had no vision.
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