Project Gutenberg 2007-05-03 Public domain in the USA. 5194 Vonnegut, Kurt 1922 2007 Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. 2 B R 0 2 B Produced from Worlds of If, January 1962. Reading ease score: 86.3 (6th grade). Easy to read. Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Geetu Melwani and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "2 B R 0 2 B" by Kurt Vonnegut is a short story that originally appeared in the magazine "Worlds of If" in the early 1960s. This satirical piece explores themes of population control and the moral implications of voluntary death in a future society where aging and diseases have been conquered, and the population is deliberately capped at forty million to ensure quality of life. The narrative reflects the absurdities and moral dilemmas faced by individuals in a world with strict population management. The story revolves around Edward K. Wehling Jr., who is anxiously waiting for his wife to give birth to triplets in a hospital that doubles as a setting for a shocking societal norm: for every new life, another must willingly end. As Wehling grapples with the heart-wrenching decision of which of his children will live, he is confronted by various characters that symbolize the darker, utilitarian aspects of this engineered world. These include Dr. Hitz, who promotes the concept of population control, and Leora Duncan, a termination facilitator. Ultimately, faced with the impossible choice and the grim reality of the situation, Wehling makes a tragic decision that underscores the story's critique of society's cold rationalism surrounding life and death. In a final moment of despair, the painter observes the events unfold and decides to end his own life by calling the "Federal Bureau of Termination," highlighting the pervasive theme of hopelessness in such a dystopian existence. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 41261 41262 2024-10-09T09:38:55.951980 2023-09-09T11:17:34.885934 text/html text/html 37784 2021-01-02T16:40:04 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 14441 2021-01-02T16:40:04 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 71454 2024-10-09T09:38:59.662947 application/epub+zip 70272 2024-10-09T09:38:57.517964 application/epub+zip 70272 2024-10-09T09:38:56.470970 application/epub+zip 119010 2024-10-09T09:39:01.274072 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 112892 2024-10-09T09:38:59.081966 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 92166 2022-09-10T06:33:49.142022 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 35455 35350 2024-10-09T09:38:55.697972 2023-09-09T11:17:34.716948 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 35323 2021-01-02T16:40:04 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 13547 2021-01-02T16:40:04 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20431 2024-10-09T09:39:01.403971 application/rdf+xml 8183 2024-10-09T09:38:57.011970 image/jpeg 2359 2024-10-09T09:38:56.742968 image/jpeg 68347 2024-10-09T09:38:55.956975 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia