http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/14931

I received this story today and I began to wonder? With world population growing, will this be the norm in highly populated countries in the future. The governments determine how many kids a woman can have and after that she is sterilized?

Should we, or the UN set up sterilization facilities in some very over populated countries and offer free voluntary sterilization?

Should aid be tied to contraception.

Seems religion is a big stumbling block in stablizing the world population.

Any ideas anyone?

Banjo
There are less forceful ways to mimimise population that have been discussed previously on OLO ie. not encouraging or rewarding large families (baby bonuses/maternity leave) and by the implementation of strong global social support structures. And the need for certain religious groups to be more responsible on family planning and contraception matters.

Forced sterilization is a step in the wrong direction towards fascism and a denial of the freedoms we take for granted. Will it be a Brave New World?

One of the best books I have ever read was 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry. The story is set in India and gave an accurate account of much of the history during this time including the sterilization programs where poor men were paid money to undergo operations to become sterile.

I recommend this book highly.

Yes I agree with pelican and recommend the book.
It heats me up to hear we should blame the poor and expect more from them in birth control.
Some how I feel it will be a very long time before the whole world, every country, gets involved in population control.
We have seen bizarre things , like killing daughters in country's that value sons and that will have long term implications.
We value human life, some human life more than others, at one end we feed those who are victims of over population.
And we talk about over population as if it is not related to growing world hunger and those deaths.

Banjo: "Should we, or the UN set up sterilization facilities in some very over populated countries and offer free voluntary sterilization?"

That should work. Not that forced sterilization would have any direct effect, as it never has any time in the past. But men tend to get fairly pissed off when other men come in and forceably remove their balls. The ensuing war will have the effect you desire. It is also a more egalitarian solution - as both the ball removie and remover, as it were, contribute to the population reduction.

Pelican and Belly,
With both of you recomending the book 'A fine balance' it must be good so I will acquire a copy.

I certainly am not advocating forced sterilization as a means of population control. I saw the article and thought it interesting enough to get others opinions as to whether it will become more prevelant in some countries. Am also interested to know if various religions see sterilization in the same way as they do contraception and/or abortion.

While population control has been mentioned here on OLO, as has abortion, I can't recall seeing sterilization, either volutary or forced, being discussed. I wonder if sterilization will raise the same level of controversy as abortion.

When one considers the birth rates it is obvious that widespread contraception, as in the 'pill', has had a dramatic effect in the Western world.

In the African continent famine seems endemic and it seems to me that, by some means or another, many countries need to reduce population simply to reduce the starvation. I do not recall the death rates, but they are very high.

China has addressed the problem by a one child policy and strongly enforces this by forced sterilization and apparently by forced abortion. Will other countries follow on this path?

Highly unlikely anyone will, IMO, and China is discovering certain draw-backs to it's success. Combined with the local preference for boys, they are now facing a huge gender imbalance. This will in time lead to a significant population fall, if you add in the education and opportunities young Chinese women are slowly achieving. They are having less babies overall, the same as their Western sisters. It also makes the disintegration of the China we all know and love almost certain, maybe 50 years left at best.
Just my own thoughts on it.

“ men tend to get fairly pissed off when other men come in and forceably remove their balls”

True, but, I get well and truly pissed off when someone has 10 kids and then cries ‘poor fellow me!’

I get pissed off by some who wander off into the wilderness without proper safeguards and, then at great expense/inconvenience to everyone else, have to be rescued.

I get pissed off by some who abuse their bodies, then monopolise the public health system.

If you continually need others to bail you out (ala Oxfam, world vision ) , you have no grounds for being pissed off if those others start calling for your balls.

I've never understood the way Aid is handled.
It makes little sense to me to continually help a society to perpetuate a situation that leads to mass starvation.
Why not lace all donated food with a contraceptive? Seems a simple solution, as long as they depend on imported food, no kids born.
If a Gov' isn't handing it out fairly, stop sending it, again, a simple answer. For those who weep about punishing the victims, well, it's their country, they can change it, not us, why should we support corrupt regimes?
A little hard-love would go a long way to sorting out things, IMO.

I am sure you will enjoy the book Banjo. :)

Maximillion is right about the one-child policy and many Chinese men have to look overseas for a wife given the propensity to dispense with unwanted girls who won't be able to care for the older generation in years to come.

There was also the problem of the "Little Emporers" syndrome where boys were spoilt rotten and with obvious consequences and effects on the rest of society. But I guess that is another story.

First let me say, we should think long and hard about any course of action we take that is contrary to the natural order of things,ie nature.
Think about all the natural disasters that kill millions around the world, then we have disease and natural attrition.
What we have to fully understand as a species is we control nothing, can you stop the sun rising, change the seasons, hold back the sea, make night into day, so best to let things go in their own way.

To rely on Nature, or the "natural order ' is to ignore this polluted, toxic un-natural world we have created.

Maximillan have you seen or experienced real air polution,as a youth in Manchester UK we had to put a hankerchief then tie a scarf around our nose and mouth, when removing them the area above on the face was black with dirt.
In the early forties and fifties Manchester had the largest industrial area in the world, so the air was filthy, my environment today is to say the least a world away from that situation and there are many people and organisation on the question of polution and cleaning up. Have faith in your fellow man.

I do have a degree of faith in my fellow humans, to try, but I doubt their ability to succeed in time.
Look at Russia, China, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, just to name a few, and the list is long. Their pollution output dwarfs anything Oz, or even England, might produce, and there's no way on Earth anybody is going to stop them, all show-piece token efforts included. And remember this, most of that pollution you recall from your childhood is still floating around somewhere.
Damage of that type and level is cumulative, and since we're already seeing the effects world-wide, IMO, then I don't hold out much hope.