Population_control

Population control

Population control is the practice of limiting population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate. The practice has sometimes been voluntary, as a response to poverty, environmental concerns, or out of religious ideology, but in some times and places it has been socially-mandated. This is generally conducted to improve quality of life for a society or as a solution to overpopulation. While population control can involve measures that improve peoples lives, giving them greater control of their reproduction [1] some programs have exposed them to exploitation.

Control of the population increase implies the use of one or more of the following practices:

contraception
- abstinence
abortion
emigration to other areas (a less viable option in modern times)
decreasing immigration
increasing death rate
- infanticide

The method(s) chosen can be strongly influenced by the religious and cultural beliefs of the community's members. Failures of the other methods can lead to the use of abortion or infanticide, in which case it is regarded as a necessary drastic last resort. A specific practice may be allowed or mandated by law in one country while prohibited or severely restricted in another, an indicator of the controversy this topic generates.

1 History
2 Contemporary research
3 Renewed support from private people and media
4 Present-day practice by countries
- 4.1 China
- 4.2 United States
5 Population control and nation-wide economical savings
6 Population control through eugenics
7 Philosophy
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links

History

Surviving records from Ancient Greece document the first known examples of population control. Their initial response to overpopulation was the colonization movement, which saw Greek outposts being built across the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins to accommodate the excess population of individual states - roughly equivalent in effect to modern emigration.^{citation needed} As the number of available sites decreased, the Greeks - beginning with the Cretans - turned to pederasty, the formal practice of pairing young adult males with adolescent boys for educational and bonding purposes.^{citation needed} This was done in concourse with delaying the age of marriage for men to thirty.^{citation needed} The Greeks also used abortifacients and some cities practiced infanticide, though the latter is considered to have been an early form of eugenics.^{citation needed}

The Siwans also used pederasty and boy marriage until the early twentieth century in order to control population size in an environment with finite resources and no natural enemies. Men were generally not allowed to marry before the age of forty. Thus the overwhelming majority of men took adolescent boys as lovers, a social contract often sealed with a formal and public marriage ceremony - a practice documented into the twentieth century in a controversial book called Oasis, Siwa: from the Inside Traditions, Customs and Magic, by Fathi Malim.

Contemporary research

It is generally accepted that overpopulation is caused or aggravated by poverty and gender inequality with consequent unavailability, and lack of knowledge of contraception, institutionalized in a document misnamed the "Cairo Consensus", and third world evidence usually bears this theory out. However, first and second world fertility rates, in the Depression era United States, Modern Russia, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Estonia and France suggest that these populations are responding inversely to poverty and economic pressures especially on women [2]. Thus France is increasing social and women's services like childcare and parental leave, expecting the policy to stop the aging of its population. Italy is regarded as alleviating overpopulation more rapidly than Sweden as a result of less gender equality and fewer children's services.^{citation needed}

Newer research has been done by the U.S. National Security Council, in a study entitled National Security Study Memorandum 200, under the direction of Henry Kissinger in 1974. This report stressed that only 13 countries are projected to account for 47 percent of the world population increase by the year 2050. This, it argued (due to its impact on development, food requirements, resources and the environment) adversely affected the welfare and progress of countries concerned. It further argued that this would undermine the stability of countries friendly to the US and therefore harmed the "national security" of the United States as well. [3]

Another study had been done by the National Audubon Society which recently released a 16-page document called "Population and Habitat: Making the Connection". In this study, population control is widely supported. ^[1]

The need for population control has lately also been researched by several organisations. Due to this research, the organisations below are now putting heavy pressure on governments for mandatory population control:

The Optimum Population Trust, a leading UK thinktank on the environment. ^[2]
The National Audubon Society ^[3]
The Sierra Club ^[4]

Renewed support from private people and media

Population control is also increasingly being featured in many environmental documentaries and films. An example is the The Planet-documentary, which accurately describes the ongoing rising human population, its effects on the planet and the necessity of population control.

A prominent modern advocate for mandatory population control is Garrett Hardin, who proposed in his landmark 1968 essay The Tragedy of the Commons that society must relinquish the "freedom to breed" through "mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon."

Other influential people who heavily advocate population control are:

David Attenborough ^[5]
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson ^[6]
David Nicholson, leader of the New Economics Foundation ^[7]
UK sustainable development commissioner Jonathon Porritt ^[8]
Paul Ehrlich ^[9]
Sara Parkin ^[10]
Crispin Tickell ^[11]

Finally, the head of the UN Millennium Project Jeffrey Sachs is also a heavy proponent of decreasing the effects of overpopulation. In 2007, Jeffrey Sachs gave a number of lectures (2007 Reith Lectures) about population control and overpopulation. In his lectures (called "Bursting at the Seams"), he featured a integrated approach that would deal with a number of problems associated with overpopulation and poverty reduction.

Present-day practice by countries

An important example of mandated population control is China's one-child policy in which having more than one child is made extremely unattractive. China's population policy has been credited with a very significant slowing of China's population growth which had been very high before the policy was implemented. It has come under criticism that the implementation of the policy has involved forced abortions and forced sterilization. However, while the punishment of "Unplanned" pregnancy is a fine, both forced abortion and forced sterilization can be charged with intentional assault, which is punished with up to 10 years' imprisonment.

Another noted example is Iran, which has succeeded in sharply reducing its birth rate in recent years (see also Family planning in Iran).

The United States supports family planning e.g. by a program called Title X. This program provides access to contraceptive services and supplies and information to those in need.

China

Main article: One-child policy

The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate the social and environmental problems of China.^[12] The policy is controversial both within and outside China because of the issues it raises; because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented; and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences. However, there are still many citizens that continue to have more than one child, despite this policy.^[13]

In February 2008 Chinese Government official Wu Jianmin said that the one-child policy would be reconsidered during the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in March 2008,^[14] but at that time a representative of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission said that the policy would remain in place for at least another decade.^[15]

United States

Enacted in 1970 as Title X of the Public Health Service Act provides access to contraceptive services, supplies and information to those in need. Priority for services is given to persons of low-income. The Title X Family Planning program is administered within the Office of Population Affairs within the Office of Public Health and Science. The Office of Family Planning directs Title X.^[16] In 2007, Congress appropriated roughly $283 million for family planning under Title X, at least 90 percent of which was used for services in family planning clinics.^[16] Title X is a vital source of funding for family planning clinics throughout the nation.^[17] Family planning clinics are very important in providing reproductive health care. The education and services supplied by the Title X-funded clinics support young individuals and low-income families. Goals of developing healthy families are accomplished by helping individuals and couples decide whether and when to have children.^[17] Titles X has made possible the prevention of unintended pregnancies.^[17] It has allowed millions of American women to receive necessary reproductive health care, plan their pregnancies and prevent abortions. Title X is dedicated exclusively to funding family planning and reproductive health care services.^[16]

Title X as a percentage of total public funding to family planning client services has steadily declined from 44% of total expenditures in 1980 to 12% in 2006. Medicaid has increased from 20% to 71% in the same time. In 2006, Medicaid contributed $1.3 billion to public family planning.^[18]