Population Control

Issue

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

Euthanasia

   Euthanasia is the practice of allowing a terminally ill or gravely injured person to die humanely with such procedures meant to be done in a sympathetic and compassionate manner. Whether viewed as ethical or not, allowing people to pass in a dignified manner to prevent further pain and suffering is a meaningful gesture.

   When nations are overpopulated to the point that it becomes excessive and detrimental to the nation's welfare, it may be beneficial to consider expanding euthanasia to also include those who are not in life-threatening situations. Such as including criminal behavior/history, physical/mental disabilities, elderly who can no longer function, financially distressed at any age, etc.

   Expanding this practice to reduce the population may seem inhumane, however, if population levels continue to rise and become detrimental to the quality of life, extraordinary measures may be necessary to prevent a nation from collapsing due to its overpopulation situation.

Abortion

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

   Until then, the possible alternatives to abortion is to encourage adoption (with financial aid for surrogate mothers), forced sterilization at a young age (to prevent pregnancies), or develop the latest technology in artificial wombs (where the embryo is extracted and brought to full term in an incubator).

   Research for the latter is an ongoing process and some success has been already made with animal development in recent years, but the technology is still a ways for human development. One optimistic estimate is 20-30 years away, and if achievable, would provide a viable solution for the abortion dilemma.

   However, when artificial wombs become available, another factor that needs to be considered is how to handle the 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 adequately care for so many when they come to term. Orphanages are already at capacity and won't be able to handle the influx of over a million newborns arriving each year.

   One possibility, 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 in the U.S. annually, which is only a fraction of the number that will be raised with the upcoming artificial womb technology. So, nations may need to employ a forced adoption policy much like a military draft to handle the number of newborns arriving every year.

   There are approximately 60 million married couples in America, less in the ideal age range of 20-50 yrs, that may adequately raise a child into adulthood. With over a million abortions being replaced with a forced adoption policy, that results in roughly a 1-in-60 chance per year of being forced to raise another child. Considering the full period of 30 yrs (for couple ages 20-50), the odds of being required to adopt will increase each year for those not already chosen, or single parenting would have to be considered as a possible alternative.

   For those not selected, whether married or not, will be forced to pay for child support every year because it wouldn't be fair to impose couples to raise someone else's child who may not have the finances available to do so. Providing financial support will be mandatory for those not selected to raise the newborn children. So, people will either be raising someone else's child or they are paying child support.

   In the near future, nations will need to decide whether to allow abortions, forcibly sterilize the population during adolescence (e.g., tubal ligation), or use artificial wombs with a forced adoption/child support policy.

   For communities that wish to continue with abortion and taking the life of an unborn child, they may want to reconsider their decision after reading my other post relating to the subject (c.f. Stem Cell Research). That post mentions that an embryo may be more than just a collection of atoms and that additional thought and care should be considered when evaluating similar situations.

Overpopulation

   The international community should consider overpopulation as a human rights violation since the quality of life is diminished by a certain degree. Because of this, the United Nations should impose a more restrictive policy towards nations that fail to address their overpopulation issue.

   Since a more aggressive stance will be taken, the global community should adopt a universally accepted means of determining a nation's population such as: (1) population growth rate and variance, (2) economic stability, (3) quality of life, (4) agriculture production, (5) geographical location and expansion, (6) death rate, (7) environmental impact (waste/pollution), among other factors.

   Once a nation has been determined that it is unable to adequately support its population for the next decade or so, sanctions will be placed upon the offending nation to encourage corrective action. If sanctions prove to be ineffective then the international community may need to declare that the nation is in violation of human rights and a strict quarantine will be imposed.

   A quarantined nation will be isolated to the degree that travel will be restricted, trade halted (including food and medicine), and other economic conditions imposed until the overpopulation situation is rectified with corrective measures.