Efforts At Limiting Family Size Not Just Fiction

A few weeks ago I gave a recommendation of Margaret Peterson Haddix's juvenile fiction book Among the Hidden, which has a story line set in a future totalitarian state where, for environmental reasons, the government limits families to a maximum of two children.

Of course, the story line is not that far fetched but a reality with the one-child policy in China. Then last week, I ran across this article reporting on a British government official (a "green" adviser) with an eerily similar idea:

WASHINGTON (BP)--Families should be restricted to two children, with abortion part of the population control effort to protect the environment, Britain's "green" adviser says."I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible," said Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the English government's Sustainable Development Commission, The Times of London reported Feb. 1."I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate," Porritt said.

JTR