Since overpopulation is such a huge problem, should there be laws limiting human reproduction?

Question

It is estimated that by the year 2050, we will need the equivalent of 3 planets to sustain the human race at its current level of consumption. 1/3 of the world's population lives under the poverty level and thousands of children are being born everyday into an abject state of poverty without adequate food, water, education, or healthcare. And the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider. Should there be laws limiting human reproduction to prevent suffering and environmental destruction? If you think so, what laws would you implement?

Answer 1

Not laws... but more education. The government should recognize the problem by rewarding singles, and families of 4 or less.

There will always be exceptions. Triplets, and infertility for example. But I agree with a previous post that each person should reproduce only twice. (Once for each partner)

Answer 2

To counter that point you should research a guy whose last name is Schumpeter (schumpter), who argues that with more mines we create more ideas that lead to a better use of resources, or the creation of new methods... Otherwise you are going to be looking for reasons to support China's current rules on the one child laws. It is a difficult decision to limit population growth when we will also be limiting the minds that can create a better world... the only way to do this is to stop funding to countries that have large numbers of immigrations into countires with better education systems (eg. the US or any other developed country, from places like South America and Africa). We need more minds that can provide/create more ideas for developing a sustainable environment for all.... for more than the 1/3 under the poverty line... I'd argue the otherside personnaly(from my above arguements) but you could use the 1 child rule as China uses or anti immigration policies that allows for the countries with the educational powers to support the greater populations to search for new methods.... Environmental destruction is inevatabile with the way the entire population operates now, it isn't necessairly in the laws but more in the appropriation of funding, less on war with others and more on education is the key.

*NOTE: The last thing we want is a communist world were there is no incentive to get rich... Let those who can get rich and hopefully they will donate money to the causes they know are important (education and scholorships for the less fortunate)

Answer 3

China already has such laws in place. Not because they are evil and hate their own kind, but because they did the numbers and looked at how many millions would die through famine if there were no controls. We are a ways from that yet, but India is getting close, as are those countries that can't sustain the population they already have.

One law that should be overturned is our pro-life president's idiocy about the withholding of federal funding for birth control programs.

Or we can go with what the poster below me suggests: Starvation or disease. I thought the point was trying to avoid that.

Answer 4

well if we would be putting laws into effect and allowing the government to control us, which is unethical and could lead to more possible abuse of the power. But still because of technology it has increased the birth rate and decreased the average death rate almost everywhere, it's hard to put a "limit" and tell people whos allowed to have kids and whos not. I mean would you really want to live somewhere where there's a "one child law"? And a part of forgotten history is that the US already tried that from 1914 all the way up to the 40's with "sterilization laws" where if they found you unfit to have children, they gave you a procedure to either "tie your tubes" or "snip you" even if you didn't want it. Try reading The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess, it seems like it might interest you because it looks at this problem of "overpopulation: in a satrical and brutal approach. And on top of that I think welfare is a horrible idea, we should eliminate it, because all that shows is that a person can still live like the way they're living and still get money. Welfare is what shows them they can act like that. Forced Sterilization IS WRONG. it's a violation of not only our constitutional right but our rights as a human. Unfortunantly, some people like to absue the system meant to help them, and they individually should be punished, by not sterilization but perhaps by a criminal charge. Yes different laws should be put in place and perhaps limits to how much welfare a person can get, and for how long and a set timetable for them to follow so they can gain employment. But that of course would probably mean more money from the government because then they have to pay people and set up buildings for i guess, "social workers" for adults, so of course they're not going to do it. it's cheaper ot pay them off.

Answer 5

Don't you worry about all that. Soon the world population will be reduced to under a billion no worries. The changes that are soon to be brought about will be unheard of in human history or at least that history that we know about. World war 3 is in its infancy and the worlds most powerful organisation will not be denied. The only people that matter and that will come out of this war unscathed will be the elite. People like you and I will have to fight to survive. The freedoms that you have experienced over the last couple of decades have been slowly eroding and it will only get worse so forget about having a say in how things are run the little people are nothing.

Answer 6

Laws? They have existed since the dawn of life. They are usually called the "Laws of Nature". Reproduction is naturally limited by the suitability of human habitat, that's a law of nature. Population ecology tells us that if we DON'T do something about creating restrictions or dis-incentives to our current over-populating then nature's laws will kick in. Either way it can or will happen. It will just be a lot more 'humane' if we do it by some type of legislation rather then the laws of the jungle. Those in the know know that those are our options. Our only options.

Answer 7

Okay so we can obviously establish that there is a problem with overpopulation, but limiting human reproduction is such an enormous, catastrophic idea. Can you imagine the amount of illegal children being born? It would devastate the world on so many levels. Humanity isn't a product that can be messed with.

Answer 8

I really don't think that there should be a law against reproduction, but rather improvements in education and birth control assistance and availability. If you look at China, where people can only have one child, you start to see some very frightening scenarios, particularly since everyone seems to want only boys. Right now, the proportion of males to females is getting dangerously out of control; if there are no females, reproduction stops! Also, girls are abandoned or murdered, which seems very sci-fi to me, and a very ill thought out method of doing things.

Answer 9

3 planets is a bit much. Putting the overpopulation aside, we should have adopted a licesning of some sort for people to bear children. Different criteria should be established to determine if someone will make a FIT PARENT. Under those conditions many of the children that you speak of would not have been born, and far less children would be the victim of dnagerous parenting. As we may not want to admit it, we have all, in our lifetime met someone who we know in our hearts had no business raising a human.

Answer 10

As far as I know, in many developed countries, the rate of birth is getting lower in recent years (e.g. Japan and some European countries). How to increase the number of the population becomes an important issue of the governments of these countries. On the other hand, those countries with huge number of population have their particular religious or traditional reasons that are hard to changed. Beside, the policy of population is always related to the societal, economic policies. Therefore it takes time for the different countries to have their own regulations on their population problems.