Reply #19: I've spent a lifetime thinking about this,

[LWolf]

and I don't have a real solution. I can't see, at this point, any direction that "solves" the issues. Solve one issue, and you've intensified another. I don't believe that anyone has the "right" to bring harm or damage to other people, or to habitats, ecosystems, etc..

Of course, defining "harm" is the sticking point, isn't it?

Still, over population is a big issue.

Another big issue, for me, is that sticky area of parental responsibility. Bringing life into the world means, imo, that you are responsible for raising that life, keeping it safe, nurturing it, and teaching it not to harm the world.

And yet another issue, for me, is spending our resources on matters of infertility when we don't need to increase the population. That's a waste of resources that could be spent on keeping the already alive healthier.

I've often wished that we could put all of those resources on developing safer, more reliable, reversible birth control. I've often wished that we could just, at the onset of puberty, sterilize every last human being. Then they could apply for a license to have a child, just like we do for a dog or cat. They could provide evidence that they have intellectual, social, emotional, and financial resources and skills to parent a child. I've often wished that, because I've spent too much time dealing with the messes created by people that shouldn't ever have been allowed near children.

Of course, that is also an unworkable solution, because then you've got some corruptible organization defining who is "worthy" to be a parent.

How about automatic sterilization for all, and a simple lottery to allow a very limited number of births each year? If births were rare, wouldn't those children be more likely to be nurtured and cared for by all, with all the resources available to society?

I'm just thinking here. I don't know what a REAL solution would be. I just know that there needs to be one.

Perhaps an education campaign, to change the fundamental cultural belief that we can't live happy, complete lives without reproducing?