STANFORD UNIV.—DEPT. GENETICS STANFORD UNIV. —DEPT. _ GENETICS

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

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the world’s most critical and unobtrusive method has merely raise the gencral ble minor_ineq uities in the
probleia, the population ex- ~ stint to be developed. Never. Jevel of guilty anxiety “allotment of positive incen-

plosion?”

The cold logic of Malthu-
stan arithmetic is of course
inescapable, The sheer mass
of humanity cannot long in-
crease at its present rate of
a doubling every 40 years.
There will b2 an inexorable
halt to human increase

. within, at most, a few gener-
ations. We can hardly doubt
that the quality of life and
the odds of peaceful sur-

theless, the obstacles to pop-
ulation control can hardly
be labeled as technological
gaps. Nor could the eccle-
siastical dogmas persist as
long as they have without
reinforcement from some
even niore primitive, irra-
tional myths. (In any case,
the crisis in Roman Catholic
theology must now reach its
own resolution regardless of
outside comment.)

among the well-intentioned
C‘Was it morally right for us
to have had those twins?”)
without achieving  practi-
cally useful vesults. He
would invoke Jewlul coer coer:
clon to achieve the ends of
the social consensus. In fact,
the main aim of his dis.
course is to attack the un-
limited “right to breed”
which now stands as a basic
personal fresdom.

tives and rewards that can

achieve the same ends.

THIS MAY scem a fechle
answer to the population
problem in poor countries,
but their basic problem is
poverty. Overbreeding is no
less a consequence of their
poverty than a cause of it,
and no amount of gloomy
exhortation or diplomatic
pressure will get very far
unless accompanied by an-

vival are deteriorating One has to question the
-under the impact of that in- AS PROF. GARRETT - merits of such a freedom in SWers to their desperate
crease long before we reach HARDIN, in an article in a crowded world. Neverthe. Problems of economic dev el-

_ the biological limit.

As everyone knows, West-
_etn science and medicine
-have contvibuted to the
problem: directly, by per-
.fecting our techniques of
preserving life and of reme-
.dying infertility, and indi-
“rectly, by underpinning the
humanitarian outlook that
cherishes the value of each
-individual life.

The technology of contra.

D:. Hardin-

s

Science magazina, and many
before him have pointed
out, man's hevitage rein-
forces a will to multiply
against a now obsolete set of
odds of infant death. He
goes on to compare the
planet to a common pasture,
and reviews the economics
of a system where a con-
mon good is left to the
greediest harvesters.

He suggest that voluntry

less, I believe that Prof,
Hardin has grossly underes-
timated the difficulty of ac-
tually policing explicit so-
cial controls on reprodue-
tion without trampling on
every other personal free-
dom.

I would not willingly
abandon our cumbersome
system of due process that
protects the security of my
person against arbitrary as-

opment.

Knowing Prof. Hardin's
background as a biologist, I
expected him to insist that
‘action be preceded by more
detailed knowledge of the
motivational causes of over:
breeding. In middle-class
America, they may be inter-
twined with our dismal fail-
ure to solve the problem.
epitomized by the title of Si-
mone de Beauvoir'’s “The
Second Sex.” What other
creative role in life do
women play after they have
dutifully Produced exactly
two childzen?

©1969 The Washington Past Co.

I understood your point about the philosophical necessities

of lawful coercion.

But I think you overlook the problems of due

process when this takes the form of direct and punitive compulsion.
And I am afraid many readers would misunderstood the breadth of your

intended usage of "coercion".

As for AID, I am quite concerned that

the difficulties faced by underdevétloped countries in controlling popu-
lation growth (as we must encourage them to do) will be used as an excuse
to minimize our technological and economic support of their development.

QA. Ka ,

PS. By olf means cansidler a
eb trod vin latter ty erin