Copyright (C) 2002 by Lidija Rangelovska.^ Issues in Population and Bioethics 1st EDITION Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. Editing and Design: Lidija Rangelovska Lidija Rangelovska A Narcissus Publications Imprint, Skopje 2003 Not for Sale! Non-commercial edition. © 2002 Copyright Lidija Rangelovska. All rights reserved. This book, or any part thereof, may not be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from: Lidija Rangelovska - write to: palma@unet.com.mk or to vaknin@link.com.mk Visit the Author Archive of Dr. Sam Vaknin in "Central Europe Review": http://www.ce-review.org/authorarchives/vaknin_archive/vaknin_main.htm l Visit Sam Vaknin's United Press International (UPI) Article Archive -Click HERE! Philosophical Musings and Essays http://samvak.tripod.com/culture.html Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited http://samvak.tripod.com/ ISBN: 9989-929-39-4 Created by: LIDIJA RANGELOVSKA REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA C O N T E N T S I. And Then There Were Too Many II. Eugenics and the Future of the Human Species III. The Myth of the Right to Life IV. The Aborted Contract V. In Our Own Image - The Debate about Cloning VI. Ethical Relativism and Absolute Taboos VII. The Author VIII. About "After the Rain" And Then There Were Too Many By: Sam Vaknin The latest census in Ukraine revealed an apocalyptic drop of 10% in its population - from 52.5 million a decade ago to a mere 47.5 million last year. Demographers predict a precipitous decline of one third in Russia's impoverished, inebriated, disillusioned, and ageing citizenry. Births in many countries in the rich, industrialized, West are below the replacement rate. These bastions of conspicuous affluence are shriveling. Scholars and decision-makers - once terrified by the Malthusian dystopia of a "population bomb" - are more sanguine now. Advances in agricultural technology eradicated hunger even in teeming places like India and China. And then there is the old idea of progress: birth rates tend to decline with higher education levels and growing incomes. Family planning has had resounding successes in places as diverse as Thailand, China, and western Africa. In the near past, fecundity used to compensate for infant mortality. As the latter declined - so did the former. Children are means of production in many destitute countries. Hence the inordinately large families of the past - a form of insurance against the economic outcomes of the inevitable demise of some of one's off-spring.