The Ethical Implications of Population Growth

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Population growth or population control? The organisation 'Population Matters' opposes coercive population restraint policies on ethical grounds in defence of individual human rights, especially women's rights. However there is no doubt that population growth does raise ethical issues around the balance between reproductive rights and social and environmental responsibilities, which we ask people to take into account.

Population Growth and Inter-Generational Ethics

It is a fact, not an opinion, that current growth (10.000 more per hour) will stop one day, simply because a finite planet cannot sustain an infinite number of people. But it can only stop in one of two ways:

a: Sooner: The humane way, by fewer births, brought about by family planning, backed by policy to make it available and encourage people to use it, or:

b: Later: The natural way, by more deaths, brought about by famine, disease and predation/war. Campaigners against the former are in practice campaigning for the latter. We owe it to our children to prevent this.

International Ethics

Population growth is not just an issue for poor countries. The UK population is projected to grow by 10 million in the next 22 years. That's '10 more Birminghams'. England is already the most overcrowded country in Europe, taking far more than our share of our planet's natural resources.

Each of us does far more damage to the planet than any poor African. Every extra Briton, for instance, has the carbon footprint of twenty-two more Malawians. We owe it to others to stabilise our numbers too (and our resource-consumption) and then reduce them to a sustainable level.

Ethical Implications of Having Large Families

It is also a fact, not an opinion, that if two people with two living children have a third child, they will ratchet up the population of the planet, and thus ratchet up damage to the environment, bring nearer the day of serious ecological failure and ratchet down everyone else's share of dwindling natural resources to cope with this population growth.

So their decision to create a whole extra lifetime of impacts affects everyone else - far more than any other environmentally damaging decision they make. We need to be aware of the ethical implications of population growth as a result of having large families. Sex education in schools should cover this subject.

Humanitarian Ethics

Some 220 million women world-wide lack access to family planning and 40% of pregnancies are unintended. There are some 50,000 deaths from unsafe abortions each year; while the women dying from pregnancy-related causes is equivalent to 4 full jet liners crashing every day. The close correlation of high fertility rates with high maternal and child mortality is well established. Every mother on $1 per day knows that the family will be better fed if there are three children around the table rather than ten.

Universal access to family planning is 'Millennium Development Goal 5b' and coercive pregnancy through the absence of it can be seen as an abuse of women's rights. A proclamation from UNICEF states "Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other known technology". Restriction of population growth should be a very high priority.

Inter-Species Ethics

The very recent population explosion since the industrial revolution is causing the current '6th major global extinction' as humans occupy, degrade, pollute and destroy wildlife habitats. Other creatures have as much right to occupy the planet as we do.

Political Ethics

For all the above reasons the UK government should state a national goal of stabilising and then reducing UK population growth to a sustainable level by non-coercive means, as soon as possible and give top priority to family planning and women's education and empowerment programmes in the development aid budget. Restriction of population growth should be a very high priority..

About Garry Baverstock

Garry Baverstock, A.M. Leading Australian architect in passive solar design, challenges government to take the initiative in the matter of climate change. Find a wide range of informative sources and innovative solutions covering, solar and renewable energy here: http://solar-e.com.

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