2 B R 0 2 B

"2 B R 0 2 B" by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction story about a future society where death has been largely conquered and the population is tightly controlled. In this world, if a baby is born, someone must volunteer to die to maintain the population limit of forty million. Edward K. Wehling Jr. finds himself in a terrible situation when his wife gives birth to triplets, and he must decide which of his children get to live. The hospital setting becomes a stage for moral dilemmas and commentary, showing the cold logic of population control through characters like Dr. Hitz and Leora Duncan. Faced with impossible choices, Wehling makes a tragic decision, underscoring the story's critique of a society that values population numbers over individual lives, and the story ends with a final act of despair from a painter, choosing termination as the only escape from a hopeless existence.