Re: Suggesting birth control to starving Africans against their human rights?

"REP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>  "Mark Richardson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> > There is an obvious ethical question to be raised in regard to
involuntary
> > sterilization, but what about the ethical question of bearing
children when
> > there are no means to support them?

> I can't think of a culture where women relish seeing their
children die.
> Putting contraceptives into the hands of women, along with
education,
> are two of the surest way to regulate fertility without coercion.


Interestingly, in societies where the infant mortality rate is high
there is a much higher birthrate to go with it.  Women reproduce at
a rate which will ensure that some of their children will survive.
Agricultural societies prize large families.  More people to do the
work.

When the South African society gets the education issue right,
together with the very real issues that Mark Richardson continually
raises relating to the lack of medical infrastructure and means of
adequately feeding families *then* and only then will South Africa
be in a position to start expecting our birthrate to drop in order
to accommodate a higher standard of living.

Moira, the Faerie Godmother