Population Control

Issue

   The world is overpopulated and the situation will become even 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 more humanely. Usually by lethal injection or to stop medical treatments, but such procedures are meant to be done in a sympathetic and compassionate manner. Whether viewed as ethical or not, allowing people to pass in a more dignified manner to prevent further pain and suffering that are near death is a meaningful measure.

   When nations are excessively overpopulated to the point that it becomes 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't function on their own, financially distressed at any age, etc.

   Expanding upon 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 as a means of preventing the population from increasing any further.

   Until then, the alternative to abortion is to employ other measures such as 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 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.

   When artificial wombs become available in the near future, another factor to consider 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 ensure adequate care for raising so many newborns 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 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 in the U.S. annually, which is only one tenth the number that will be raised with the upcoming artificial womb technology. So, nations may need to employ a forced adoption policy upon their population to raise the newborn children (much like a military draft).

   There are approximately 60 million married couples in America, less in the ideal age group of 20-50 yrs, that may adequately raise the 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 for married couples. Over a period of 30 yrs (for couple ages 20-50), odds increase each year, or single parenting would have to be considered as well.

   Those not selected, whether married or not, would be forced to pay for child support every year because it wouldn't be fair to impose upon couples to raise someone else's child who may not have the finances available to do so. Financial support will be mandatory for those not selected to raise the newborn children.

   So, in the near future, people will either be raising someone else's child, or they're paying child support. 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.

Overpopulation

   The international community needs to 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.

   The global community will need to adopt a universally accepted means of measuring a nation's population level that considers factors such as: (1) population growth rate and variance, (2) economic stability, (3) quality of life, (4) agriculture production, (5) geographical space, (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 level for the next decade or so, sanctions will be placed on 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 adequately rectified.