strategy

Legally controlling production of children per couple

Synonyms:
Licensing reproduction
Implementation:
A leading British doctor proposes a minimum age for child-rearing at 25. Each couple that received approval, having provided proof for being suitable parents, would be allowed no more than two children, and/or people with more children should face higher taxes or other financial penalties.
Claim:
A sustainable future means sustainable development means sustainable population numbers. The planet's out of control population growth requires control to bring population numbers to sustainable levels, otherwise mankind faces an increasingly troublesome future. The longer we wait, the more such population control measures need to be harsher and enforced, and the less it can afford to be voluntary and left to its natural course. This much is true. While people would rather voluntarily decide to have fewer children, there have been and will be points in time, in some country or region, that leaving population levels to natural progression will not be enough. Then it is proposed that emergency legal controls on birth rate must be implemented and made effective, regardless of the type of country those citizen's live in, or the amount of protest there may result. China's one child per family rule is the best example of successfully enforced birth rate control. Quite simply, this is rational short term pain for long term gain. Failing to see it and do it is not an option.
Counter Claim:
Population control can be achieved, as it has in the Western nations, by development and non-coercive means, and not by coercion. The education of young girls and women, for instance, has been found to be one of the most effective methods to reduce birth rates. But it is possible we may reach a point when such preferred approaches simply "run out of time".
Broader:
Licensing
Subjects:
Biosciences Growth
Society Infants
Society Marriage
Commerce Purchasing, supplying
Industry Production
Law Legality
Cybernetics Control
Type Classification:
E: Emanations of other strategies
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-beingGOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and ProductionGOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions