Sex and Consequences

Abstract

Conflict between concern ooer global population growth (still rising precipitously, even though growth rates have slowed) and concern for reproductive rights is intense. NeoMalthusians, on the one hand, point to the dire consequences of ooerpopulation; feminist def enders of reproductive rights and religious opponen ts of population control, on the other, point to abuses population programs have involved. In this paper I explore how de elopments i n reproductive technology, present and future, may provide a solution to this conflict-one which promises both a significant drop in population growth and the fulles t protection of reproductive rights and preferences. Drawing on the distinction between two principal types of contraception, short-acting or time·of·need technologies and long-term or automati c contraception, it poses a thought-experiment: What if everybody all fenile females, and when the technology becomes available, all fenile males were to use automatic, reversible contraception? The effect of this circumstance would be to reverse the default mode, so to speak, in human reprod.uc ion, so that having a child would require a deliberate choice, fallowed by the action of removing or neutralizing one's form of contraception. Under the assumption that people would choose to have fewer children than they would accept having when unplanned conception occurs, we can predict a dramatic decrease i n population growth indeed, the greatest possible decrease consistent with the full protection of reproductiue rights for both females and males, Such a prospect would be morall:y acceptable only under two conditions, 1 ) universaUcy, to avoid the targeting of groups perceived as at higher risk. And 2) guaranteed reversi bility, so that people can always attemp t to have the children they want. If these conditions are met, it is possible to resolue much of the conflict between neoMalthusian concerns over population growth, on the one hand, and feminist and at least some religious concerns about reproductive rights and population control on the other. In this short paper, I shall address two grave problems: global population growth and reproductive rights. It might seem impossible to address these two problems at once, so much at odds the solutions may seem. After all, those worried about population growth insist that individual freedom to have children must be limited if the world is to survive, while those concerned with reproductive rights are adamant about protecting women's reproductive libeny the right to have the children one wants. I plan to step between these two opposing camps to show that, thanks to what may seem to be only a tiny, incremental development in reproductive technology, there is a way of accommodating both concerns both limiting children and having the children one wants.