Since Nadya Suleman recently gave birth to octuplets, much debate has arisen over the ethics of having children in today’s world. While I am not endorsing Suleman’s actions (having such a large number of children simply to receive monetary aid from the government and well-meaning citizens, which Suleman has been accused of, very much trivializes the meaning of childbearing), it is nonetheless clear that our society has an ungodly hatred of children. Having fourteen children by in vitro fertilization—at least without a male provider—is perhaps irresponsible. However, many debaters claim that the rest of us should avoid childbearing due to overpopulation and the destruction of the environment. This is downright foolishness, and Christians need to take a stand.

First of all, overpopulation is mostly a myth. Ever since Paul R. Ehrlich published The Population Bomb in 1968, it has been blamed for all sorts of problems. Yet most experts predict the world population to peak in the mid-2000s and then, interestingly enough, begin to decrease due to sub-replacement fertility rates. Particularly in the Western world, we’re already having too few children to even replace ourselves, and this decrease in fertility rates is expected to continue and spread worldwide.

Even more, the current population of the earth could fit into the land area of Texas alone, with each person having as much space as the floor space of a typical home in the United States; even then, the population density would only be about that of present-day Paris¹. Sure, some of the our cities are overcrowded, but over 95% of the land in the world is still empty. We are not running out of space; people generally just live in crowded cities because they offer a higher quality of life with more job opportunities. 

So, if space isn’t the problem, are we saying that there are just too many mouths to be fed? After all, it’s impossible to deny the fact that poverty plagues so many third-world countries, and one might expect that population growth would only exacerbate this problem. Some have even predicted massive worldwide famine as a result of overpopulation. Yet a 2001 UN Report on population asserts that “over the period 1961-1998, world per capita food available for direct human consumption increased by 24 per cent, and there is enough being produced for everyone on the planet to be adequately nourished.”² That’s right—everyone on the planet. Hunger in the world today is the unfortunate result of the mismanagement of food resources, economic hardship and tyrannical, self-serving governments. There’s more than enough food to go around; it’s just not getting around. It has nothing to do with overpopulation, and avoiding childbearing in an abundant nation like America does nothing to help the situations of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia. If we really care about world hunger, instead of wasting our efforts on avoiding (or terminating) pregnancy, we should be pursuing ways to supply the impoverished world with food. 

A more recent trend, however seems to try to link childbearing and the destruction of the environment. At age 25, a British woman by the name of Toni Vernelli had an abortion because she wanted to “reduce her carbon footprint” (read the story here). She was completely sterilized two years later. “I didn’t like having a termination,” she said, “but it would have been immoral to give birth to a child that I felt strongly would only be a burden to the world.” If killing an innocent child because you believe it would be “immoral” to burden mother earth isn’t hypocrisy, I don’t know what is. Still, the idea of saving the planet through avoiding children has become rather popular. The reasoning behind it is that more people means more pollution and consumption of resources, but the aforementioned UN Report concluded that “in general, population growth appears to be much less important as a driving force of such problems than is economic growth and technology.”² Furthermore, what sense does it make to allow the human race to fizzle out in an effort to save the world? Isn’t the whole point of preserving the environment centered upon the purpose of human beings enjoying it and benefiting from it? If we’re gone, what good is it to have a healthy planet orbiting around the sun?

Thus, people argue that it would be irresponsible to breed based on erroneous reasoning with a lack of factual support. But should we be all that surprised? Both the overpopulation argument and the environmental argument are simply-cover ups for the real depravity in our heart: we hate children.

Many people have said that it’s “selfish” to have children in today’s world. Obviously, those people don’t have children, because having a child demands incredible sacrifice on the part of the parents. Moreover, it’s the decision to avoid childbearing which is more often self-centered; we think kids get in the way of graduating from college, fulfilling career dreams, traveling the world, and having time to ourselves. Even Toni Vernelli claims to “have a much nicer lifestyle as a result of not having children” in the article mentioned earlier. Let’s be honest—our society hates children because they get in the way of our comfort; raising kids will require us to lay down our lives. Unfortunately, children have become inconveniences in a culture which demands convenience, and nothing hinders the American dream more than the responsibility for another life.

Perhaps some of our problem is just misinformation or flawed logic. We see images of poverty, look at our crowded cities, and assume our world has an overpopulation problem. The media loves to strike fear into our hearts and cover nuts who claim the apocalypse is coming because it draws an audience. But there comes a point where we must realize that we’re not just ignorant; we are vile, twisted, sinful human beings who will make any excuse to live in rebellion against God. The Bible clearly portrays children as a blessing; the psalmist exclaims that  ”children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3 ESV). Yet we have taken them to be a curse, a punishment, a misfortune.

With that being said, I am thankful that, while we flee childbearing and abort our babies (4000 a day in the United States alone³), our heavenly Father welcomes every new addition to his family. Instead of sacrificing his children, God sacrificed himself—the ultimate expression of love and selflessness. How wicked have we become, to think of the joy and blessing of childbearing as irresponsible, unethical, and stupid!

I am wholly in favor of fighting poverty and taking care of the environment; we have been entrusted as stewards of this world and have a responsibility to do so. However, the recent trend to view having children as part of the problem is simply atrocious; Christians must draw the line at this point. Find effective ways to end poverty and preserve the earth; don’t use these cop-outs to have abortions and avoid bearing children. Ask God to change your attitude, to break your heart over the tens of millions of aborted babies every year. Realize that childbearing is one of the most efficient ways to make disciples and add to the family of God. And remember that while everyone else is trying to stop this world from ending, we’re anxiously awaiting it, living in hope of the day when, in Christ, all things shall be made new.

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¹Jim Peron, “Exploding Population Myths,” Fraser Forum, October 1995, Fraser Institute, 2nd Floor, 626 Bute Street, Vancouver, B. C., V6E 3M1, (604) 688-0221.

²”World Population Monitoring 2001,” United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, New York, 2001. [89] p.

³ You can find this statistic and more at http://www.abort73.com.