2 B R O 2 B (Unabridged‪)‬

"2 B R 0 2 B" is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in a magazine in 1962, and collected in Vonnegut's Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B," in reference to the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from Hamlet. The setting is a society in which aging has been cured, individuals live indefinitely, and population control is used to keep the population at 40 million; this number is maintained through infanticide and government-assisted suicide. For every new birth, someone must die. In a waiting room at a hospital, Edward K. Wehling, Jr., is faced with the situation that his wife is about to give birth to triplets, but he has found only one person who will volunteer to die. Soon, tragedy strikes....