Mankind, its numbers, health, and family arrangements: group report 3.

Abstract

The population problem is an imbalance between numbers of people and limited resources. The resources of food, energy, and living space have been well documented as finite in a world with population expanding geometrically. Terrorism, breakdown of social order, and other social symptoms may also stem from this overcrowding. The economically more affluent nations are attempting to deal with unregulated fertility by developing and spreading information on means of conception control and granting equality of status to women to compensate for the reduction in the childbearing role. Social systems are very complex and changing the desire for children is quite difficult. In addition, people have a great capacity for ignoring potential disaster when surrounded by it. Liberty of the individual and control must be kept in balance. It is recommended that more effort be made to understand the motivations behind human reproduction and what social incentives exist to reduce family size. There is also need for contraceptive technology and for more effective dissemination thereof. Values and attitudes need to be changed and the mechanisms of communication, the institutional and organizational structures operating in the field of reproductive behavior, and the role of policy determination by the nation need to be studied. There is need for fertility control in conjunction with mortality control. The committee believes that basic minimum components of the quality of life may be imposed upon a people if necessary in order to preserve the diversity of cultural and individual differences.