Reflections on 'Reflections'

Abstract

Howard's article linking the official Catholic position on artificial birth control to a coming overpopulation apocalypse is critiqued on two major points: (a) Countries with unusually high fertility rates have smaller Catholic populations than countries with fertility rates below the replacement level, and (b) world hunger is as or more likely to be the result of politics and distribution systems rather than overpopulation. It is suggested that economic development and equitable social orders are more likely to benefit less-developed countries in the long run than is the imposition of birth control by the Western powers.