The Bright Side of Overpopulation

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With more women freed from repeated childbearing, each child can potentially have a more generous share of attention and resources. If, for example, Hillary had six children instead of just Chelsea, she wouldn't have had many moments to spare for volunteer work with the Children's Defense Fund. "It takes a village to raise a child," according to the African adage, and that ratio of resources to child might be good for the villages as well as our children.

But the happiest consequence of overpopulation, which no one at Cairo dared say and probably few have even ventured to think, is that sex can finally, after all these centuries, be separated from the all-too-serious business of reproduction. Technology has made it possible to uncouple sex and babymaking; ecology has made it necessary. Now all that remains is for us to make the cultural leap to an ecologically responsible sexual ethic. This means, at a minimum, guaranteeing contraception, with abortion as a backup, to all who might need it. But it also means telling our teenagers the hard ecological truth -- which is probably also the best news they could get -- that sex, in our overpopulated world, is best seen as a source of fun.

If, after all, the essence of morality is respect for each life, and if, , furthermore, all future life is threatened by rampant reproduction, then what could be more moral than teaching teenagers that homosexuality is a viable life-style? Or that masturbation is harmless and normal? Or that petting, under most circumstances, makes far more sense than begetting? The only ethic that can work in an overcrowded world is one that insists that women are free, children are loved, and sex -- preferably among affectionate and consenting adults -- belongs squarely in the realm of play.