Population Control
In early years human population and population growth has not been an
issue.
This is because of the variety of different environmental factors.
Sickness and
disease has played a large role in keeping human population
under control since
the beginning of time. It seemed that when a population
would get over crowded
an epidemic such as, the influenza or small pox would
break out. This would
drastically decrease the population enough that it
would be under control again.
Famine is another great controller of
population. When a famine strikes an area
only the few with enough food will
be able to reproduce or even survive. An
examination of world population
control would not be complete with out including
war. War also performs
wonders at controlling population by murdering most men
of child rearing age.
In today’s day and age, with our current technology
increases disease
outbreak and famine (except in some 3rd world countries) is
not much of a
factor any more. War is not considered a valid population control
method due
to today’s "new" wars. Without the three largest population
controllers much
of a factor anymore population is free to run out of control.
This
provides us with an ever-increasing controversy; this is whether
government
or society should dictate family size. I believe that society can
infringe
indirect controls over family size, but these are considered more
community
norms as opposed to hard fast rules such as governments can set.
Two examples
will follow. First, we will look at our society. Yes, the USA’s
turn to no
child and one child families. This was caused by society. Society
pushes
Americans to have successful careers both male and female. There
has been a
switch from families to careers. This not providing Americans with
the time or
means for multiple children, but cutting the number down to one
or none. Another
example of society's control, is the push in some
Asian/Middle Eastern countries
for a family’s first child to be male. Even
when there is no government
regulation many cultures push for your first
child to be male. This forces
families to abort females and even murder them
once they have been born. Once
again this is a society/cultural push not a
mandated rule. These instances are
what different societies have created for
themselves, when included in one of
these societies it is hard to say whether
it is right or wrong. I will first
address the aspect that government should
not control family size. First of all,
it is a natural and religious right to
produce offspring. Breed, multiply and
populate has been the belief since the
beginning of time. The idea is to grow
population so that our beliefs and way
of life may be spread and passed on. Who
is government to take these right
away? Governmental control over family size
goes against everything that the
USA stands for. This would be an age-old idea
called freedom. When a
government starts dictating the kind and size of family a
person can have.
Almost all freedom is lost. Another topic briefly addressed
above is the
aborting and murdering of babies that aren’t male. A first hand
example of
this is China. China regulates or gives incentives to families that
only
produce one child. This is where the problem begins because most
families
want this child to be male. Male children are providers and will go
out and join
the working world. They will be "successful". Many female babies
are aborted
once sex is determined. If sex is not determined before birth,
once born many
female babies are abandoned or destroyed. This showing the
cruelty that
government controlled family size will push people to.
Government should control
family size because in most instances the general
population can not handle this
for themselves. A prime example of this is our
already over crowded inner
cities. People with chemical addictions and no
financial means are cranking out
babies right and left. They have no means of
providing for all of these
children. Government currently provides for these
under privileged children,
that as cruel as it sounds, should not have been
born. I have had a first hand
example of this problem. A family friend in
another state has adopted three
crack babies from the same mother; this
mother is also on welfare. This certain
mother is by no means an exception.
China is another example of why government
needs to control population. Look
at the current problems that they are faced
with because in previous years
they have done nothing. Left uncontrolled,
population will snowball out of
control. Government needs to be aware of the
ever -increasing population
growth problem. I believe that rather that mandating
how many children a
family can have. They should educate its population on
different means of
birth control and possibly start providing for free.
Especially in this
country a harsher penalties needs to be imposed for chemical
dependent
mothers that become baby factories. An education/management plan can
be
imposed allowing individuals the freedom to determine the number of
children
they desire to
have.