The Family: Stay Single

Population planners hope that, at least in the U.S., pills and other contraceptive devices will soon be available to every couple that wants them. Yet even then, the nation's population will keep growing at an alarming rate. The reason is simple but often overlooked, according to Dr. Roger O. Egeberg, HEW's Assistant Secretary for health and scientific affairs. "The typical American family," he told a Planned Parenthood conference last week, "will elect to have three children, not two."

Egeberg proposed a radical solution, involving nothing less than a change in prevailing attitudes about marriage and children. The notion that everyone...