Sex is essential, kids aren't

[madmusic]

Why are 30% of German women choosing to go childless? Free will, baby.

By David P. Barash, DAVID P. BARASH is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
May 10, 2006


THE GERMAN PUBLIC was recently shocked to learn that 30% of "their" women are childless — the highest proportion of any country in the world. And this is not a result of infertility; it's intentional childlessness.

Demographers are intrigued. German nationalists, aghast. Religious fundamentalists, distressed at the indication that large numbers of women are using birth control.

And evolutionary biologists (including me) are asked, "How can this be?" If reproduction is perhaps the fundamental imperative of natural selection, of our genetic heritage, isn't it curious — indeed, counterintuitive — that people choose, and in such large numbers, to refrain from participating in life's most pressing event?

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-barash10may10,0,7632432.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

[Deja Q]

1. Incorrect.

I've lived without it for several months.

And before that I had nobody for over 4 years.

Despite wanting.

Despite being hurt, I kept attempting to meet people to make friends - not all the hurt is betrayal of one of their own, I will not be biased.

But these days, I am best left alone.

And from what I felt this morning, my days are numbered. (I won't use the trimspa again, probably.)

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. there are 7 billion people on this planet

we are overcrowded as it is, I think it is a good thing that people don't feel compelled to have kids. If you want them, fine, that's great but if not it's one less stressor on the environment. I think it's silly to have kids just because it's what everyone else does

[Redstone]

3. I think there are very few people who have kids for that reason.

Maybe fifty or even thirty years ago that was the case, but (at least in American and Europe) I don't think it is anymore.

Redstone

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Fundies who believe we should screw until we are knee deep in

people should be required to manifest their own new planet with plenty of room for tricycles and day care centers.

[Rosemary2205]

15. Overcrowded my butt

There are at least 3 tracts of land in my county the developers haven't slapped a stripmall on yet. :) --- that and don't even try to tell me the planet can't feed everyone. Just what we throw out at the "all you can eat buffet" in the US could feed half the planet.

[Hardrada]

4. After the First World War a lot of French women decided

it was best to have no or fewer children since they saw what the warmongers had done to a generation of French young men who had been, as it turned out, valued mainly as cannon fodder. Americans in various instances have also lately avoided bringing children in to a world where there is no apparent good future. Or future.

[undergroundpanther]

6. I don't have kids don't want anything to do with'em

As for sex it's low on my priority list of things I like to do too..and I am not the only one...
http://www.asexuality.org/home/

[StClone]

7. I am torn by this

I am a firm believer that the world is headed for resource calamity. But I also believe that love is the highest and purest form of being and children can be an expression of that love.

I really feel my life has been enriched deeply by my spouse and my children but the need for such is not universal.

[WindRavenX]

8. Many growth factors in cell cultures...

...will inhibit further mitotic action once the concentration of growth factor is too high-- perhaps this could be an example of something close to the cells

PS-- I'm studying to be a biologist too :hi:

[Jacobin]

9. Well, from a biological point of view, babies are essential

to propel our genes into the future which is what drives animals, at bottom. I'm of the belief that humans are animals, too.

But, I get your point. A person can have a wonderful and fulfilling life without babies.

[madmusic]

10. Though I agree with the article...

...sometimes I don't, so just for the record, this is from the L.A. Times.

It is an interesting take, because it explains other reasons for the drop in the lower birthrate of whites, and that is part of the reason for the anti-abortion, anti-immigration, anti-gay stance: too few white babies. The article implies there are good evolutionary reasons for fewer babies, and that is what the right is up against. No wonder they hate evolution. :shrug:

[Odin2005]

11. We are programed to have sex, not to have babies.

Since (untill contraception became widespread) sex results in babies, there is no evolutionary problem; we are just outsmarting Nature. Humans are the only species smart enough to know that sex results in offspring.

[Hardrada]

12. The rich get rich and the poor get children.

[REP]

13. Not "Childless" - ChildFREE

I'm one of them. Sterilized twice, no children. When women have a choice, quite a few will choose, "No, thank you" and that's one of the major movers behind the anti-abortion/anti-birth control campaigns - fear of women making the choice to be women, not mothers.

[aikoaiko]

14. its alright, the breeders will inherit the earth. nt/