The question in hand then is how do we solve the issue of overpopulation? There have been many suggestions and possible solutions to the problem, some reasonable and some extreme. These are a few that we considered and believed to be good to expand upon and analyze. The most reasonable way to stop overpopulation is to control how many births there are. Because we live in a world where ethics take high precedence, we must consider the effects of the method outside of its targeted purpose.
A commonly suggested way to stop overpopulation is an improvement on sex education and family planning services. Educating the public as a solution is plausible for most first-world countries today as most societies may view the efforts as truly beneficial to the world in the long run. An example of a working program like the one described was held within South Korea. Prior to the policy, birthrates in South Korea were extremely high, peaking in the late 1950’s at 6.33 children per woman. South Korea passed a population policy in 1962 that was effectively a family planning campaign to reduce women's unwanted births through a program of information, basic maternal and child health services, and the provision of family planning supplies and services. After a decade of the program, birthrates fell to around 3 births per woman and eventually the birth rate reduced to an average of 1.2 children per woman. With that said, there could definitely be opposition to national and/or international sex education programs. Although it sounds simple, implementing these services at a global scale will take much time many resources. These programs would most likely be funded by the government, so the demand for the services must be considered by the government to be able to function. Other than statistical problems, there may also be many cultural and societal conflicts around the world. Religious and conservative groups resist such an idea, stating that it is unethical to teach sex-related topics to children or placing moral beliefs on ideal families first. In the United States, one major socio-political conflict is between pro-choice and pro-life groups about the subject of birth-control and abortion legality. We have yet to see this issue be resolved in America and it is doubtful that it will fade away or become irrelevant anytime soon, so we must overcome certain aspects of society in order for a program like this to be accepted around the world.
Another method of regulating births is through a maximum child-birth policy that would be upheld and enforced by the government. This practice would restrict the allowed number of children per couple at a realistic number, one or two, and could make exceptions to specific minorities or ethnic groups. By doing this, it prevents the population growth from spiking or growing uncontrollably, and if maintained for long enough, the policy would eventually equalize the distribution of ages. The most successful example of this type of policy was used in China in the late 20th century. In the aftermath of World War II, families were influenced to repopulate the country to revive the Chinese population. In the early 1960s, the average birth rate was over 6 children per woman. The Chinese government then had a similar education/enforcement policy that showed the virtue marrying late, which in effect lowered the birth rate to less that 3 children per woman. However it is the One Child Policy that further emphasised population control as the country became modernized and industrialized and with it the average life expectancy increased as well. During this time period, the One Child Policy had a major role in ensuring that the population did not reach a point of overpopulation in China. The Chinese Government has stated that the policy has successfully accomplished what it was used to to, estimating that over 400 million births were prevented. The policy also had a large impact on the demographics of China over the next few decades, slowly shifting from an elderly majority to a more equal distribution of ages. The One Child Policy has lade to lots of criticism to the government, many believing that the policy was against human rights and unethical/immoral to practice, seeing that many pregnant women would have new-born children killed immediately after birth. There has also been a correlated societal impact, a conundrum that has been dubbed the “little emperor effect”. The One Child Policy creates families which there is an only child, and many fear that this will cause the newer generations to have poor social skills or to become self-centered and spoiled. However, there have been no studies that have proven that there is a direct causation relation between the two.