Speculum : The Journal of the Melbourne Medical Students' Society ...

clinics have at last been establishedand the most recent report was thatthe annual rate of increase had fallenfrom 3.0 % to 1.9 %: still too high buta heartening improvement.The world on a larger scale is justa. s much an island in space as MauritiusIs in the Indian Ocean. The samefactors are at work in all tropicalc ountries and the post-war "babyboom" everywhere means that at thethe present time there is a far largerpopulation of young adults in there productive age than at any time inWorld history.We have been civilized for somethingless than 5,000 years. The best estimateis that the earth will probably be fitfor human occupation for another5,000 million years. You may well askwhY worry about what may happenMore than a dozen or two years ahead.MY answer would simply be BertrandK ussell's : that it is the mark of ac ivilized man to be able to feel deeplyabout things that may happen longafter he is dead.k My contention is that a stabilizedh uman population for the earth must'?,e reached with the least possible delay.Iceail be he birth-rate in all communities must: the ,° e brought as soon as possible intoe was7 perIlk with the death-rate to give ast abilized population—a steady stateslow s ystem as they say in physics.the Only long term considerations can)T to Play any part in that argument. In andis,attempt to give a clear reason why oneeavih wants to see population control and the[ariol' est ablishment of a stabilized globaltunW ec osystem the following 3 points may, and bi e relevant.i the 1 . We want the human species, estWespecially our own descendants, tormiir , survive.rise 11 '. We want to approach and eventuallyto 14 , maintain a situation by which every, vere° Person can enjoy optimal healthearl! Within his genetic limitations, and196 without harming others to havewhile o pportunity for achievement within6. II; the limit of his potentialities and toon 0 ' Win recognition for it. This is allabout I Mpossible without the amenities ofeach c ivilization, physical security, edurnos'cation and medical services par-DTI 01 , 3 ticularly.00 ifi ' We must see than non-recurringt is global resources are maintained forme future generations.light) thend the first requirement for all ofreoPl e elri is population control.ppott i The logic of population control isrtab 11 tille,s caPable, but men and women'sveve i 1: 11 aviour is not based on long term)ntr° It c. I think most of you will agreethat although the technical details ofcontraception are always importantwhat is needed is the desire to have 2children and 2 only. We need instinctualand emotionally based motivation aswell as logic. Most women would liketo have at least two children fairlysoon after their marriage and whenthose are "off their hands- engage inactivities which are, or seem, moregratifying than raising young children.Then there is the more responsibleand equally significant desire to beable to provide the best care andopportunity to one's children. A smallfamily, particularly a two child family,is the best way to achieve this."The birth rate in allcommunities must bebrought as soon as possibleinto line with the deathrate to give a stabilisedpopulation.""I advocate two - childfamilies."In Britain there is a strong trend tothe two-child family wherever thepeople concerned are intelligent andhave freed themselves from contraryindoctrination by church or family orthe general social environment. In thedays when two thirds of children borncould expect to die from infection ormishap before maturity it was rightfor tribal leaders to claim divinesanction for the call to be fruitful andmultiply and replenish the earth. Underthe conditions of today I fancy thatthe word of the Lord would be "Takeheed that he have no more than two"for equally good ecological reasons.The most important obstacle topopulation control is the ignorance andpoverty of a large fraction of theworld's population. There are many ofsubstandard intelligence and manymore careless and apathetic in theshanty towns' of the world includingmany both white and aboriginal inAustralia.But we must not underestimate thesecond major obstacle, the power of theaccepted cultural pattern, the socialand religious background in which aperson has developed. For intelligentpeople, ecology and personal conveniencemay be insufficient to breakthrough the indoctrination that sex isan equivocal activity and contraceptionsinful unless some equally potentcounter-attitude can be engendered.This brings me back to practicalmatters. 1 hold it as self-evident thatbirth control is as necessary in Australiaas anywhere else in the world.It is at least as essential to everyfamily as pasteurized milk, medicinesor holidays.In Victoria education in the use ofcontraceptives is almost limited to theadvertising literature of the manufacturersof contraceptive pills. Thereis an excellent little book on "ContraceptionWithout The Pill" publishedby Sun Books but I have never seen itadvertised and I doubt whether manyof the people it was designed for knowof the existence of it or any otherequivalent source of information.I am not as well up with the localsituation as I should be but I do knowthat family planning centres should beas widely spread as hospital maternitywards and baby health centres, andwherever possible closely associatedwith one or both. Only in a few placescan such an arrangement be found inVictoria. The answer of course is lackof money.1 am interested in a curious similaritybetween the two social problems whichI happen to have espoused—cigarettesmoking on the negative side, familyplanning and population control on thepositive. Australia is very behindin both but one can also feel that thegiant vested interests that are opposedto both of these logical and sociallyvaluable approaches are falling back.Every civilized country except Australiahas now banned TV advertisingof cigarettes and only a little furtherpressure should bring Australia intoline. Now is the time in both fields topress harder for what must inevitablycome. As I have said elsewhere, itgives me a lift to quote what J. M.Keynes said about vested interests."The power of vested interests isvastly exaggerated compared with thegradual encroachment of ideas".