Population Growth & Its Remedies

Some people and governments believe that overpopulation necessitates certain controls to prevent growth from outpacing the access to natural resources. Remedies for population control often bring up a conflict between the ethics of using birth control and sustainable population growth. The "cures" for excessive fertility rates can take the form of a direct intervention in people's lives or a change in socioeconomic factors.

Background

• According to "The Population Explosion" by Carolyn Kinder, scientists attribute the incredible population expansion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to two major factors: improved medical and agricultural technology. People no longer die from diseases--like polio and small pox--that used to plague humanity. In addition, new farming techniques increase food production faster than increases in population.
  An overpopulation remedy also needs to look at growth patterns around the world. The developed countries tend to have low birth rates that stabilize, and sometimes even cause a decline in, population size. Developing countries usually do not have the latest farming technology, so poorer countries need more human labor. Thus, population controls in developed countries will not likely lower global population growth as effectively as remedies in developing countries.

Ethical Considerations

• Implementing population control brings up ethical--and sometimes religious--conflicts. Some passages in the Christian Bible, for example, suggest that humans are to prosper and grow in number. Catholicism take this to mean that all forms of birth control are unethical. Doctors must also deal with the dilemma of abortion. A physician opposed to birth control procedures must consider the ethics of adding another life to a community that cannot support the current population.
  Before implementing a population growth remedy, the reaction of the general public should be considered. Medical procedures like abortion that prevent births often cause a great deal of protest and controversy. Forced sterilization and other invasive measures may be seen as government overstepping its authority.

Remedies That Worked

• Several current, proven population growth remedies show enough success that they may negate the need for experimental remedies. Quite often, the overall economic health of a nation holds a direct link to fertility rates. Thailand's fertility rate, for example, dropped from six children per woman to two during the early 1990s, coinciding with a technology boom when the general populace realized that there were benefits to having fewer children, according to the University of Michigan. Because of the natural lowering of birth rates that economic prosperity brings, boosting national wealth can be seen as a desirable alternative to forced population control.
  China's one-child policy takes a more invasive solution, one that's mandated by law. The one-child policy works like it sounds: each family is only allowed one child. However, some may see these types of policies as ethically questionable, according to the book "A Companion to Bioethics." However, although China's aggressive one-child policy appears to violate ethics by Western standards, Eastern religions--such as Hinduism--tend not to see population control as unethical.

Designing a Plan

• When designing a population growth control plan, the main objective is to achieve lower birth rates in the most ethically sound manner. And since these are large-scale plans that need to be implemented on national, if not international, scale, this means that government policies and international cooperation between nations needs to be involved.