So are we supposed to congratulate Michael Lewis for his heroic, self-denying act of undergoing a vasectomy? Or are we supposed to read the article in its entirety and note his satirical but still convincing self-pity?
Lewis vacillates from realizing the physical discomfort his wife suffered in going through three pregnancies, to what seems, in context of the full article, to be his true feelings of "I shouldn't haaaave to do this."
Life control? What if his wife had calmly announced (BEFORE children 1, 2 and 3) that *she* was getting snipped? What would he have thought about his precious "life control" then?
As far as his tongue-in-cheek proposed treatise "about whose loins were meant to be surgically closed for business," a male recovers faster and has fewer after-effects from a vasectomy, than a woman has from a TL. And although neither reversal can be guaranteed, a vasectomy is more easily reversed than a TL.
Additionally, since when does being sterilized make a man an "it" or not "a MAN" (insert testosterone-fueled grunt here)? Properly performed, a vasectomy does not interfere with a man's sexual function.
For "good thing #3" on his list, how about looking outside his own pants, and considering: "I'm doing something that my wife will appreciate, that will save her future pain and discomfort, and that will therefore most likely enhance our relationship, because she knows I'm doing this out of love for her." Would that be too much to ask? Apparently so, from a man who considers being vasectomized being "a traitor to my sex."

Caroljo:

Uh, he still got it done. Doesn't that count for something? ;)

The arguments that go on inside our heads when we feel ambivelant about something are not usually very PC. I was touched that the author shared his internal struggle with me and it gives me some insight into a man's possible viewpoint, politically correct, or not.

The points you raised are good to consider BEFORE getting the procedure done, but after it's already done, the excitement of never worrying about birth control for the couple makes those earlier fears fade into obscurity.