In the Humble Opinion of LittleBill, Socialist, Atheist, and Humanist
Overpopulation Solutions as I See Them

Overpopulation Solutions as I See Them

It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation—encouraging because of growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.

War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.

Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:

1. The earth is of unchanging size.
2. The earth’s resources are finite, and rapidly being depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.
3. Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causes—some old, some young, some ill, some healthy—but we will all die.

Envision two cows in a corral with barely enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.

Some humans live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And as the numbers of each increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.

There is only one possible solution. Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born. Following are my suggestions for partial solutions, written for this nation, but imperative in some form for all:

1. In the future the number ofchildren per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of religious belief or personal wealth, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth contnrol should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.

2. The Hippocratic Oath (first do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging life can frequently result in more harm than good.

3. Babies born with no chance for any quality of life should be allowed to die mercifully at birth, at the request of their parents, and with their consent.

4. All adults should be made aware of and sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (or similar legal document) stating how they should be cared for in case of catastrophic injury or illness. In the case of children, or adults who have left no instructions and are beyond the ability to do so, their families or their surrogates should be allowed to make the decision for them, rather than having them drag on forever unable to make the decision for themselves.

5. Suicide should be relieved of its stigma, and the humane means of accomplishing it made available to those who want to choose that course for any reason, physical, mental, or emotional.

And then, of course, there is the final solution, of unending war, pestilence, starvation, and violence of every sort, marching over the face of the earth as I write—the option-of-choice of the compassionate religious right.

6/16/07

4 comments:

LittleBill said...

I wrote the original of this article many years ago. Tried to post it here shortly after beginning my blog, but discovered the other day, to my dismay, that only half of it was here. So I have tweaked it a bit to improve it, and I hope it all shows up this time.

jmsjoin said...

Little bill!
It seems I have seen you do this somewhere before. I like tour solutions. Especially numbers 4 and 5.
As you know Bush has his own and it is still getting started. WW3 a war like the world has never seen and will not survive it as we know it.
Also the planet is at a point in its life cycle (I might have shown you on my site) where it can no longer survive world war. As you know the ecosystem is seriously degrading and instead of helping it we are preparing to worsen exponentially.
As a result we will survive into the future but on a much smaller scale and a much more tenuous relationship with the planet as you may have read in my Manifesto to the World. Very Good little bill!

DB Cooper said...

Bill, do you think over population and uncontrolled immigration could possibly be related?

LittleBill said...

I sure do, DB! But it's the overpopulation we should be attacking on a global scale. The main problems are religion and lack of education. I really think that there is too much of each for humans to be able to change in time, and unfortunately, that the last option I mentioned will be the final one.