Population Control

Issue

   The world is overpopulated and the issue will become worse if no preventive measures are taken to correct the matter. This is a global problem that requires every nation to address the situation.

Euthanasia

   Euthanasia is the practice of allowing a terminally ill or gravely injured person to die more humanely. Usually administered by lethal injection, or halting medical treatments, but such procedures are meant to be done in a sympathetic and compassionate manner.

   Whether the practice is viewed as being ethical or not, allowing people to pass in a dignified manner prevents further pain and suffering for those that are near their death. If nations are overly populated, it may be worthwhile to consider expanding euthanasia to also include others that are not in life-threatening situations. Such as criminal behavior/history, physical/mental disabilities, elderly, financially distressed, etc.

   Expanding this practice to reduce the population may seem extreme and inhumane, however, if population levels continues to rise in the future, extraordinary measures may be necessary to prevent a nation from collapsing due to its overpopulation problem.

Abortion

   The debate over abortion whether pro-choice (a woman’s right for aborting the fetus), or pro-life (the child's life should be valued until natural death), may become irrelevant if nations of the future become overpopulated to the point of near collapse. In which case, abortion will be forced upon all as a means of preventing the population from increasing any further.

   The alternative to abortion is to employ other measures such as forced sterilization to prevent pregnancies, or develop technology where the embryo may be extracted and fully brought to term in an artificial womb. Research for the latter is an ongoing process and some success has been made with animal development, but the technology is not yet there for human embryos. One estimate to include humans is only 15-20 years away, and if achievable, would provide a viable solution for the abortion dilemma.

   When artificial wombs become available, another factor to consider is how to handle the large number of children that will be raised by the program. In America, over one million abortions occur every year, which brings into question how to ensure adequate care for raising so many when they come to term. Orphanages are already overcrowded and won't be able to handle the influx of over a million newborns every year.

   One possible alternative, even though it may become unpopular, is that the nation may need to consider a forced adoption policy to handle the situation. Around 100,000 adoptions occur normally in the U.S. annually, which is only one tenth the number that will be raised with the new technology, so a forced condition will be necessary for the nation to employ. There are approximately sixty million married couples in America, less in the ideal age group of 20-50 yrs, that may adequately raise the newborn into adulthood.

   So, it may be necessary for the nation to implement a forced adoption program (much like a military draft) to handle the number of unwanted newborn children. That would result in roughly a 1-in-50 chance of being forced to raise another child for married couples. Those not selected, whether married or not, would be forced to pay for child support because it wouldn't be fair to impose upon others to raise someone else's child who may not have the finances available to do so.

Overpopulation

   The international community should have a more restrictive policy towards nations that fail to address their overpopulation issue.

   The United Nations will need to adopt a universally accepted means of measuring a nation's population with factors such as: (1) population growth rate and variance, (2) economic stability, (3) personal wealth, (4) agriculture production, (5) geographical space, (6) death rate, (7) environmental waste/pollution, among others.

   Once a nation has been determined that it is unable to adequately support its population for the next generation or so, sanctions placed on the offending nation should encourage corrective action. If sanctions prove to be ineffective then the international community may declare that the nation is in violation of human rights (since overpopulation decreases the quality of life), and a quarantine will be imposed.

   A quarantined nation would be isolated where travel would be restricted, trade halted, and other similar conditions until the situation is rectified.