Cav's Place

I recently stumbled upon this article and it reminded me of a talk I once had.
I was making a case for one of my favorite topics, namely a strict control of who should be allowed to have children, and I said the first criteria should be health. If you currently suffer from a disease that you could directly pass on to your child, then you can’t have children until you are cured. If your family has a noticeably higher than average incidence of a certain illness or you suffer from an incurable disease that you could directly pass on to your child, then you can never have children and should be permanently sterilized to spare you the trouble of birth control. I gave being HIV positive as an example of an incurable disease, saying that sterilization would eliminate the risk of an accidental pregnancy that could result in either an HIV positive infant or an abortion that could jeopardize the possibly already fragile health of the mother.
What I got for it was a barrage of “that’s discrimination!” and a couple of nicely worded messages explaining that such a measure is not necessary as a currently available treatment is 98% effective in allowing an HIV positive mother to give birth to a child not infected with HIV. Well, besides 2% being 2% too much to be an acceptable risk, read that report and decide for yourselves if such a treatment is a good idea. How selfish are you people?
But enough about a specific case. I said it’s one of my favorite topics, so here I go…

As with most environmental issues, it’s pointless to argue about overpopulation. Those who will understand, already do, those who don’t, won’t. Or perhaps they will, but only when it will be too late, and then they’ll go straight from disbelief to despair. Still, just to lay the groundwork, anybody with either a lot of time and patience or excellent fast reading and comprehension skills can check this out.
It would seem that the population growth rate is finally starting to drop, and the trend is for it to keep dropping. If that trend holds steady and the report is right, then the fertility rate will fall below replacement level close to 2050, but the population will still see a slight increase for a while after that due to the ever extending life span of humans. At some point in the second half of the century, human population will finally start to very slowly drop, but we’ll already be well over 9 billion by then.
The report that site cites calculates a trend, of course, and that can change either way over such a long time span. Not to mention the possibility of humans colonizing other worlds, the probably greater one of Earth finally deciding to be rid of the annoying rash that we are, or the certainly greater one of us wiping ourselves out by then. However, I’ll rather not need to resort to mass killing in order to bring the population down. But we do need to bring it down, and fast!
The optimum human population for Earth has been determined to be between 2 and 3 billion for quite some time now, and the latest reports only confirmed that estimate yet again. We are already at around 6.5 billion and using up about 150% of what our world can provide under good conditions. One could say that, considering the tremendous amount of extra people, we’re using “only” 50% more. But don’t think that’s because of good resource management because it isn’t. It’s only because a large number of those people don’t have their basic needs, such as enough water, food, basic medical supplies or shelter, met.

The population is actually our greatest environmental problem, all others are simply its effects! Doesn’t matter how much you manage to reduce the ecological footprint of one person if you add another to the total the next moment. And, aside from using resources, people take up space. More space for people means less for all the other creatures we share this world with, because Earth isn’t getting any bigger!
So the problem is simple: We need to reduce the population drastically and rapidly. And do that, preferably, without resorting to mass killing. Simple problem, complex solution. But I believe it might still be possible, if we act now.

The first thing we need is a drastic control of who is allowed to have children. You need a license to drive a car, but anybody with a reptilian brain and a functional reproductive system can have a child. That just won’t work anymore. In the wild, the fittest survive and reproduce. In human society, pretty much everybody survives long enough to reproduce. And, what’s worse, those less fit for it are more likely to do it. Therefore, the first obvious step is the wide scale implementation of eugenics. (On that topic, there is another site you might want to check out.)
If the term paints a grim picture in your mind, that’s probably because it has been used to justify ethnic cleansing in the past. But that’s just a case of improper use of the term. If the criteria used are race, nationality, religion, etc., then we are talking about ethnic cleansing. If the criteria used are health and mental and physical abilities, then we are actually talking about eugenics, which is simply a way to ensure that only the fittest will reproduce in a society that allows all to survive.

But this particular kind of eugenics should use abilities to control the number of people, not set clear targets for said abilities themselves, which makes it even harder. That said, I believe step one of the plan is to set a clear limit on how many children should be born. Considering the enormous current population, I think that limit should be very low, perhaps equal to 10% of the total number of people of reproductive age. Next, there should be a massive surveying operation to determine the entire range of human mental and physical abilities, to figure out what exactly constitutes a top result for each ability surveyed. After that, the operation can begin.
I do have a pretty detailed idea of what should happen between the moment a couple decides to have a child and the authorities either granting or denying their request, but that is a subject for another rant. This is about starting the process, and that start won’t be from a clean sheet, so a few more things need to be specified.

At the start of the process, it will unfortunately be impossible to compensate for the children those of reproductive age already have, as doing so would probably mean no new children will be allowed to be born for quite some time, but those who already have children certainly won’t be allowed to have more. The only exception to that rule would be a couple having just one child, and no others born in previous relationships, who want a second and will score high enough to be granted that request.
Something else that must be specified is that preparations for starting such an operation should be completed within a short amount of time, adding to the difficulty. That is because, people being as selfish as they are, once word will be out about such a plan, most of those who want children but don’t think they’ll be deemed fit for it will hurry to have them while they still can. The only way to prevent this would be, unfortunately, forcing those who are already expecting a child to register and banning new pregnancies completely while the preparations are underway. Obviously, such a measure must not be in place for too long. There are more things to clarify about this too, but, once again, that’s another rant.
Also, just to clarify something, this organism will only interfere in the lives of those who specifically want to have children and those who happen to be unlucky enough to end up in an unwanted pregnancy situation. They will not be allowed to butt into the lives of anybody else in any way.

Needless to say, the penalties for anybody breaking this law must be drastic. And by anybody I mean prospective parents trying to have children without approval, those who don’t seem to be able to effectively use birth control, people knowing of an illegal pregnancy and not reporting the situation, or members of the board that approves or denies such requests who attempt to use their influence to alter the outcome of a decision either way.
As a side note, if guilt is obvious in the prospective mother’s case, a full investigation will be carried out to determine the prospective father if there would be no admission of guilt.
Any pregnancy that’s not approved must be terminated as soon as it is noticed. Use of the “day after” pill at most twice per year or of shots at most once per year to terminate a potential pregnancy will not be counted, but any additional use within that amount of time will be considered an abortion.
Anybody knowing of an illegal pregnancy must advise the culprits to terminate it, and notify the authorities if they fail to do so within a few days.

As for the specific penalties, I have some ideas:
– Up to one year in jail for anybody proven to have known of an illegal pregnancy and not report it. Up to one year of prison time will also be added to whatever other penalty will be given to a guilty prospective father who initially refused to admit his guilt.
– Permanent sterilization in a way that will not impair the ability to have sex, but no other penalty, for those who appear unable to use birth control effectively. By that I mean more than two accidental pregnancies in two years, more than three in five years, or more than five total.
– Permanent sterilization in a way that will not impair the ability to have sex plus up to one year in jail for those who did not voluntarily terminate an illegal pregnancy, whether it was accidental or not, in case the authorities learned of it and detained them in time to perform a safe abortion.
– Permanent sterilization, other procedures that actually will impair the ability to enjoy sex in the future, plus a lifetime sentence of hard labor for those who kept an illegal pregnancy hidden and/or evaded the authorities for long enough to make a safe abortion no longer possible upon their capture. In such a case, if the child will be born healthy, he or she will be given up for adoption. The same penalty should also apply to any member of the control authority proven to have used their influence to change the verdict for a petitioning couple either way.

Harsh? Maybe, but without something like this, it wouldn’t get done. And this really is necessary, because we have created a society that does not respect one of the most important laws of nature, namely survival of the fittest. That’s not bad in itself, giving a chance to everyone who wants to live is a good thing, but it causes imbalance. And in order to restore that balance we must firmly control the reproductive instinct. It’s simply a price that must be paid.

Of course, controlling births will not be enough to solve the population problem fast enough, but what I think the other parts of that solution are will be a subject for another rant…
Yeah, complex topic, I’m splitting it in several pieces because, if I were to put it all in a single post, I’d never finish writing it… Or at least nobody’d read it if I would end up posting it at some point…

Oh, and just because I see this one coming: It’s not an issue of what if I won’t be allowed to have a child, the issue is that if I actually would be allowed, the criteria are wrong!