Population Control
Here is a link to an article that discusses the possibility of implementing population control and what that may entail for the future - https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23531331-300-the-ethics-issue-should-we-impose-population-controls/. I found this article interesting because it rose some valid points in my own mind regarding how there is only a finite amount of resources in the world and how there are some countries that have already implemented such a rule, like China, asserting that its citizens are permitted to only have one child per family. The obvious issue regarding such a policy is that each individual has the right to life and the right to procreate and to deny any individual of such a right would at a first glance seem ethically wrong, but I argue that a point could be made that by limiting the number of babies per family, we are minimizing the harm on the planet itself and thus maximizing happiness for many more years to come for all the people of Earth.
-Kabir Al-Tariq
-Kabir Al-Tariq
That is a really interesting article. I think it is a fair point that yes, limiting people to only having so many children seems like stepping over a boundary, but at the same time, it limits the amount of harm on the earth and makes the quality of life better. I read an article on China and their one child policy and it should some of the consequences and advantages of this policy. Here is the link: http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/chinapop.html
ReplyDeleteIt talks about how the policy can be difficult to implement as well as other issues. Something China did as of 2013, was have a new policy about how if a parent comes from a one child family, they can have two children.
-Ashley Dice
After doing some more research I found some interesting facts on China's history of their one-child policy. According to this source: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151113-datapoints-china-one-child-policy/, in 1949, under the reign of Mao Zedong, he encouraged the people to have children as it would lead to making them great country and "manpower" (National Geographic, 1). He even went as far as not have as many contraceptives imported. Unfortunately, their resources started to become strained in the 1970s and they made the one-child policy to stop the suffering of the people as there was a really rough famine.
ReplyDeleteI find this article very interesting and while it seems crazy to dictate the number of children families are allowed to have, we need to do if we are to survive. In fact, i think that policies limiting production should be implemented in many more countries around the world. At least in so far that we haven't found any other habitable planet. That's maybe why space exploration is an important quest for our survival. The earth isn't getting bigger and technology is making it easy for us to increase our life expectancy and so, it is likely that even with severe birth control policies, we might not be able to preserve the Earth's vital minerals.
ReplyDeleteSocial policies are put in place to address total welfare of the members of that society. The one child policy in China effectively reduces the strain on the finite resources. The mandatory military service in South Korea prepares the nation against the impending nuclear war from North Korea. These policies undoubtedly impose negative externalities on individuals, but the social benefit for all outweighs the damages that could occur otherwise. So it does seem like challenging a social policy from an ethical perspective is futile and frankly, irresponsible.
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