http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4104680.stm
This is the kind of crap that just pisses me off. IVF is lame. It's lame because having a difficult time getting pregnant is nature's way of telling you "thank you for not breeding". There's a reason for it, and for as fantastic as science and medicine are, I think there are certain advances that aren't exactly advantageous.
When you look at the population boom in India and then consider the millions of dollars spent each year in the west on IVF and other fertility treatments - it's a frightening thing. Just what we need, more people!
I just keep thinking, "cane toads, cane toads, cane toads". Scientists have this way of just rushing forward, patting themselves on the back for brilliance, and not really considering the long-term.
The world is so incredibly fucked up. You have Japan, with a steadily declining birth rate, India with a rapidly inclining birth rate, and Africa - with a rapidly shrinking middle age. The estimate is that by 2010 there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone.
So what do we do? We spend precious research funds on lame ass IVF.
Sometimes I really hate people.
3 comments:
It's a shame International adoption is both a breaurocratic and logistic nightmare. Putting aside, for the sake of sheer numerics, the unwillingness to adopt in the first place, I can't see any downsides to it: the population, and by association, the gene pool, gets spread far and wide and everyone is a little more evenly spread out.
Of course, the world would have to be a whole lot more united before this would be feasible on a scale greater than the present by any significance. Frankly, I think we're mostly going the other way :/
I agree that we are mostly going the other way, with rare exceptions.
The hot spot right now is India. In the 70's when the scare mongers were running rampant India imposed a policy of sterilization (particularly in the poorest regions) and even went so far as to reward health workers who performed the largest numbers of sterilizations. This created an "all or nothing" mentality when it came to birth control, leaving many women to feel that if sterilization was their one available contraceptive resource they would rather forsake birth control entirely.
So while the birth rate was declining in many nations in the 70s thanks to effective family planning eforts, the birth rate in India was increasing. India today is expected to overtake China's population within the 25 years or so which will make it the most populous nation on the planet.
What makes this so frustrating is while a half billion strong increase is expected in India by 2050, diminishing water tables (particularly in India's breadbasket) may well lead to a population decline due to hunger and the diseases of malnourishment.
While I'm all about adoption, I also think it's pissing into the wind when it comes to the problem of overcrowding.
Wow. That was a mouthful.
Yes... I must confess I didn't know the figures involved. That rather puts in perspective, though :/
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