Recently, a couple from Michigan welcomed their 12th child. All 12 have been boys and a newspaper story was written in a humorous vein; the couple thought they might have had a girl with this birth. As is correct, the newspaper remained neutral to the issue of birth control.
Frankly, I’m appalled. We have 7 billion people on Earth, and are estimating 9 billion within a generation. I can’t think of anything worse to do to our Earth than to bring oodles of children into this world. Yes, we have the room for more people, but at what expense? Butchering up the land with housing developments has been shown to be destructive to wildlife, not to mention that every person on Earth deserves to be kept warm and well-fed.
Why cannot people voluntarily limit their families? I realize years ago it was necessary to bring multiple children into this world; infant mortality was expected and families did not know which of their children would die before adulthood. But with vaccinations, science keeping preemies alive, and surgeries on infants becoming the norm, birthing large numbers of children is no longer necessary.
The couple from Michigan are using their Roman Catholic religion as an excuse. There are no excuses, not if we want our planet to survive.
