The argument is sometimes made that population control is absurd and inhuman while the option for adoption is available. This is when the discussion of quality versus quantity of life must come under heavy consideration. Today humans are destroying their environment at an astonishing rate. We are over-fishing our oceans. There is world hunger and poverty with one in three children malnourished worldwide. The useable part of the Amazon Rainforest will be depleted by 2030. Species extinction is at an all-time high. And, water scarcity
is growing with a pending water epidemic
in 2025.
Simply put, the human race is extremely overpopulated. We do not have enough resources to allocate to the vast numbers of peoples around the world. We especially do not have the resources for everyone to live as Americans do, which would take seven earths. At this point with every life introduced on this planet the overall quality of the life of all humanity, not to mention other species, decreases.
Poorly educated individuals will argue the immorality of population control or go on a cult inspired rant about “playing God.” Before going any further we as Global citizens and respectful ethical human beings must acknowledge the existence of other people's and cultures around the world.
On April 16th 2007 Seung-Hui Cho stormed Virginia Tech University with guns killing 30 plus people and wounding at least another 20. A couple weeks after the shootings bumper stickers, front doors, and facebook profiles were littered with commemorative ribbons showing support and sorrow for the students and teachers who died that day at Virginia Tech. This is all heart warming and lovely but at the same time, half a world away, there was an unprovoked and unjustified war in Iraq that had killed more than a half million people. Yet I saw no ribbon. It seems no one felt sorry or took time or money out of their day to show distain for the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s killed and murdered unjustly by the United States.
Situations and displays of in-group morality such as these by religious, interest, and governmental groups are usually propaganda campaigns that play to (American) ignorance--and are all too prevalent. It seems the people who are usually pro-life are also for the death penalty. In a case such as this, for all extensive purposes, that person and their arguments should be ignored and that person should be educated because their view of reality, morality, and ethics are so warped they cannot possibly make a coherent and reasonable argument. So before one can say “I have the moral high ground,” one must make sure to rid their arguments of in-group morality and biases and consider all the currently living people all around the world and how their opinions, assertions, and accusations affect their lives.
With that said, the implementation of an ethically responsible world-wide population control program is necessary and desperately needed. However, that would take two things. First, for nations and people's to care about the earth's biosphere and their environment. And second, the motivation to take effective actions and implement necessary measures that will reduce and then reverse global resource depletion. The easiest way to do this would be to constrain the population through fertility regulation (i.e. reducing the global birth rate). The problem is that I don't believe humanity has the intelligence, capacity, or will to confront such a monumental problem and reverse it.
Thanks for reading! Please comment!
Im sorry but you use ad hominen fallacy so much that half your argument is not justified. You argue that certain peoples arguments shouldn't be considered not because of the arguments themselves, but because of the history of these people. Argue against the peoples arguments instead of trying to dicredit them as a way to disprove thier arguments.
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