"2 B R 0 2 B" by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction short story published in 1962. In a future where aging has been cured and lifespans are indefinite, the population is strictly controlled at forty million. For someone to be born, someone else must volunteer to die. At a Chicago hospital, a man awaits the birth of triplets but faces an impossible choice. The story explores the dark consequences of a seemingly perfect world.