Here’s the scenario. A quantum ray burst hits Earth, rendering every human on Earth unable to reproduce. We can still fuck, but pregnancy will never result. Nor does artificial insemination work.
Fortunately you are among humanities finest and have come up with the only solution. You have complete carte blanche to distribute (or not) the cure, which is in pill form, as you see fit. There is no other cure in sight; it’s your way or the highway.
Humans sterile before the quantum burst hit will not be cured by your pill, nor will it affect fertility rates - it just resets the reproductive ability of the human to ‘factory condition’.
Oh, and you’re also anonymous. Nobody will know it was you who decided your cure policy. What do you do?
People should make their own decisions. I’m not so wise that I can tell them what’s best for them or for the planet.
So obviously I picked the second option, that anyone who wants it will get it.
However… I just want to make it clear that I’m going to be charging for this. (So I also picked the “something else” option). Since I’m sure I can’t produce 6 billion pills overnight, the first few rounds will be auctioned off to the highest bidders. After I’ve soaked the rich/desperate and demand is under control, I’ll set a more reasonable market price for the rest of the pills. I might feel more generous if people were dying and not just sterile, but I don’t feel any moral obligation to restore their ability to breed.
I’ll plow some of my massive profits into a nonprofit foundation focused on providing education, health and infrastructure for the poorest people out there. That will be my way of being a good person - giving them something they can use, not dictating what they should do.
King Wargamer the First, Lord and Ruler of the Kingdom of Wargamia (Formerly Maui). Once I get Queen Scarlet Johansson set up in the Royal Budoir, then we’re all back to cranking out the babies. (Esp. Queen S, if youknowwhatImean bow-chicka-chicka-wow.)
Hell, yeah, I decide. The one up above about not having more than three kids, that’s a good one, although I would heartlessly reduce that to two. You don’t need anymore than replacement number kids. In exchange I’d make sure all the women who couldn’t have kids (infertility) could have them.
Beyond that I’d probably make people pass at least some sort of baby exam. Like, if you are a crack addict, no kids for you until you clean up your act! If you think shouting at a baby or shaking it is ok “sometimes” no kids for you!
I’d probably come up with more restrictions as I went on.
People who want them, who can afford to take care of them (i thought about the “under three kids” rule, but if you can afford 15 kids you get 15 kids and if you can’t afford any you get zero), no religious fundamentalists of any brand.
Build a luxury self-sustaining habitat in space for me to live on, then do what you want with the cure - I’m outta here.
Odds are there’s no need for any policy, really; I think simply requiring a pill would change things quite a bit. Teen pregnancy would fall off completely, for example - why even take the pill in high school? Require a parent’s permission to get it if you’re under 18 seems reasonable.
If people had the option of waiting to turn on fertility, I suspect you’d get a ton of people deferring on their own to the extent we’d see a precipitous drop in birth rates. No need for restrictive policies.
Hmm. On one hand, this is a unique opportunity to completely eliminate all genetic diseases and disorders.
On the other hand, how many people would then be left? (and of course, the causal mutations responsible for these conditions can, and probably would, occur again)
The problem with having a “baby test” is that nearly everybody in the world could fail them, depending on who sets the questions. Genetic problem? Fail. Health problem? Fail. You’re poor? Fail. You’re middle-class? Well you might lose your job, so we’re going to fail you unless you can prove you have means for 18 years. You’re rich? Fail, your kids will have a high chance of growing up to be spoiled brats. Overweight? Fail. Underweight? We should probably test for eating disorders, but we should probably fail just to be safe. Got a dangerous job? Fail, we don’t want orphans. Single? Fail. Married? Better fail, half of all marriages end in divorce. Gay? Look, can you really prove your relationship will last?
Are you smart enough to have kids? A tricky question. We don’t have many examples of the government choosing who’s smart and who isn’t, so let’s take the US’s last example, the voting literacy tests in the South during the Jim Crow era. I mean, nobody’s going to argue that those tests performed the intended purpose of the testers, right? I’m sure they’ll work for us. In fact, I’m pretty sure my friend over here could probably tell by sight whether someone is fit to have kids. You trust him, don’t you?
I choose to make everyone fertile again. The diversity of the world has reached this point by letting all and sundry procreate. And, in doing so, I have done something else. I trust, Mr. Kobiyashi, that this pill works on everyone, not just those who were fertile before? I have just changed the lives of 1 in 7 married couples in the world. Having done so, that night I would go to bed with my wife with a clear conscience. Ah, oh yeah, and birth control. Whenever people ask me why I didn’t have my own kids and only took on my wife’s kids, I don’t have the heart to tell them I’m infertile myself.
Will babies born to “fixed” parents grow up to have normal fertility? If so, then everything will be back to normal in a generation so I don’t see a problem with some pretty tight restrictions. These are US specific and I think variations could be made for other cultures.
Must be at least 22 years old.
No felonies within 5 years (maybe include an appeal process for that).
Price point high enough to make it a serious decision/purchase.