In my benevolent-dictator utopia, a totally safe, dosage-unimportant, man and child safe, otherwise perfect birth control is in the water supply and fortified into basic foods. To be fertile, you have to take the antidote for a month or two.
The antidote is widely available over-the-counter for about a dollar per hundred pills. No questions asked, no licensing, no counseling, no credit check, no home visit, it's easier to get than Tylenol. But to get pregnant you have to actively, deliberately take the antidote and you have to stick to it for a little while.
I think this would improve the world tremendously.
I have to agree with you there. The catch is that you would fight a constant battle, if that level of control over basic human behavior were available to bureaucrats and wannabe tyrants. The ability to deny certain populations fertility, the ability to be the one doling out fertility in exchange for whatever concession you can imagine . . . it would be too much temptation for a lot of people and bureaucracies.
ReplyDeleteI know it was supposed to be a utopia, but I can't help myself sometimes.
DG - Agreed. I can see it starting with "well, not kids under 16!" or so and then progressing to "well, not felons!" and so forth until you have to plead every case to the baby licensing board. But in the pure form it's a fun idea.
ReplyDelete*nods* I have to agree. I'm inclined to make it mandatory in cases where girls have unintended pregnancies. One offense and Zip! On the Norplant or Depo-Provera you go, until you are adult enough to make an informed choice.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'd change is that the antidote. I think I'd make both parents swallow an earthworm--if you can't handle that, a baby is far too gross.
ReplyDeleteBob - I don't think I agree with you there, birth control shouldn't be punishment for an "offense" and there shouldn't be subjective judgement of when someone is "adult enough." I'm more comfortable with something that's universally applied and can be easily circumvented by anyone with half an ounce of brain.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to prevent people getting pregnant when it's "wrong," I just want to prevent people getting pregnant by accident or half-accident or impulse.
Not to sound like a downer, but to put something that potent in the water supply... is probably going to eventually reduce or even eliminate the fertility of every mammal on the planet and maybe a lot of other animals too. Hormones are pretty universal, and the presence of man-made estrogenic compounds in the water is already causing a lot of minor problems. Trying to aid all those animals in reproducing would be a logistical nightmare.
ReplyDeleteNice idea in the abstract, however. Maybe something surgical and easily reversible could be done soon after birth? That might run into some of the same kind of thorny issues as circumcision, though.
I agree with you. a)There's simply too many damn people on our planet. b)If children were rarer, I think we would care for them more, in terms of love, health care, and education.
ReplyDeleteLawrence, the obvious humane solution is to rocket children off-planet until the numbers even out. We can start with mine.
ReplyDeleteHey, kids! Who wants to be a spaceman?
That's not a bad idea--except for what DON pointed out.
ReplyDeleteDon: something tells me that, if you actually tried to do that, your bride would have YOU in the rocket.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I sorta love this idea. As a female I too would love not having to worry about it. But I feel like disease would skyrocket. Most young teens etc wear protection for the sake of avoiding pregnancy, not disease. Without the fear of pregnancy they would get more "oh don't have any protection... oh well one time won't hurt". STD ares a a less visible threat/fear to some
ReplyDeleteNo go, Strings. I tried to get her to have me in a rocket once, and you'd think I'd asked for a lung.
ReplyDeleteWell, technically, it was only the command capsule from one of the Gemini missions, and it was in the St. Louis Science Center, but it had really been to outer space, which I thought was pretty romantic.
I sometimes misjudge that way.
i should stop by more often - i also wrote about this, about a week ago, on my LJ. my basic set up was essentially the same (everyone was automatically ingesting an anti-fertility whatever), and if people wanted to be fertile, each person who wanted to be fertile had to get (free of charge and required within a set time period, like 48 hour delivery or something, to ensure that bureaocrats have a much harder time discriminating) - each single person, male or female, had to get and take a counter agent that only worked for *THEM*. to avoid things like "he spiked my drink to get me pregnant" or "she spiked my drink to make me marry her"
ReplyDeleteor even worse "they spiked our drinks as a joke and now we are pregnant ...
nothing to add that is helpful - i am just amused at the serendipity of this post wrt my post :D
Until nanotech becomes a regularity in society, such a solution is unfeasible because a biological solution would necessarily modify hormone patterns which would be very bad for developing humans. Not to mention what the side effects would be on pets
ReplyDelete