Population Control: Overpopulations, Birth Rate, Reproduction, Methods And China

From the pantheon of international folk heroes, Robin Hood stands as one of the most enduring images of heroism. A superficial glance shows only a criminal making a living through theft, but anyone with remotely developed understanding of Robin Hood recognizes his attempt to provide for the poor by taking from the wealthy. Given the social and political background of Hood's story, people tend to sympathize with his efforts as righteous by way of necessity. In the current world, advances in technology, medicine and many other beneficial fields have not only enhanced the world, but perhaps led to concerns of overpopulation. Population control has thus become a rising issue to prevent endless Hood-like theft as the world's resources diminish.

The world has inarguably grown in human population, especially during the last century. More cars ride the roads, more individuals look toward Social Security for sustenance, and more people struggle for food. Population control presents an eventually necessary consideration if not an immediate one. Though methods for obtaining population control differ, the goal of lowered birth rates remain the same. Some means of inhibiting reproduction include simple sexual abstinence, use of contraceptives or even infanticide. Groups may even suggest same-sex relations as one of the methods to promote population control. Clearly, the approaches to population control are fraught with social dilemmas that people must consider before implementing them.

China presents one of the most widely known forms of population control with its one-child policy, an example of the loaded ethics related to population control. Overpopulation has and continues to threaten China, a significant enough danger to have brought about the government-mandated one-child policy. In it, couples have strong advantages for restricting children to a single one. Critics of the program indicate the country's more significant decreases in birth rates occurring throughout the 70s, though the one-child policy only took effect in 1979. Reproduction occasionally increased after implementation of the population control mechanism, leading some to say the government can only affect so much change within population dynamics. Others counter that since many states will likely double in population within 35 years, policies of population control must take effect from the government or otherwise. Either way, the world's populous continues to grow at far more rapid rates than history indicates for the world's past.

Robin Hood makes sense as a hero because the world surrounding him had plenty to offer, but suffered impediments to obtaining those resources. Populating the planet beyond its threshold, though, may make it so that access to resources will be limited or impossible because of a simple, altogether lacking of them. Debates about the ethics of population control continue, but just as the discussion continues, so does the population growth. For the sake the world, its inhabitants should consider population control of some sort before Robin Hood's legacy diminishes; everyone has become the needy and thieves have no one left to rob.


Sources:
"China's One Child Policy." Overpopulation.Com. 2 Nov. 2007. http://www.overpopulation.com/faq/countries-of-the -world/asia/china/chinas-one-child-policy/.

"Population Control." Wikipedia. 23 Oct. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2 Nov. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_control.
Sullivan, Morris. "Population Control: How Many are Too Many?" Impact Press. Feb. 1999. 2 Nov. 2007. http://www.impactpress.com/articles/febmar99/popul ation2399.html.