To date, there has been overwhelmingly negative reaction to all proposals to make international philanthropy conditional on the cessation of population growth by overpopulated recipient nations. Foreign aid is governed by two inflexible assumptions:
· The right to produce children is universal, irrevocable right of every nation, no matter how hard it presses against the carrying capacity of its territory.
· When lives are in danger, the moral obligation of rich countries to save human lives is absolute and undeniable.
Considered separately, each of these two well-meaning doctrines might ne defensible; taken together, they constitute a fatal recipe. If humanity gives maximum carrying capacity precedence over problems of cultural carrying capacity, the result will be universal poverty and environmental ruin.
Tags: