My vote is for sure against declawing and I would never choose that for my boys, or future kids. My guys all came to me pretty full grown, so I did not have the luxury of early training with a scratching post. Over the years I've had every kind of post and the guys will use them. That doesn't stop them from using the furniture and carpets though. They scratch everything. Oh well. Like someone mentioned, that's what cats do. If you visit my house, you will get cat hair on your clothes and you will have to look at shredded furniture! I've learned it takes a good couple years to really RUIN the piece..smile. The boys know very well they are not supposed to scratch and stop immediately if they're caught, but there's no stopping when we're not around, and they will sneak in their scratches at night.
I have never clipped their sharp little claws. For some reason, my thinking was that would make them scratch even more, to get them sharp again. Am I totally off base in this belief? Not that at 13, 14 and 6 they are going to start letting me clip them, but I'm curious.