The pressures of family, community, and nation for childbirth do need to be acknowledged. Adoption solves a different problem.

I adore my children and my grandchildren. I think I have made it plain in almost every bit of my writing that everything good in my life comes from the children. It just pisses me off that people get a little crazy about that whole childbirth thing. Mainly because there are so many who need families. Why not help them?

I wasn’t so much contradicting Honey, as pointing out there are other reasons than personal conviction to take into account.

Children are the way that cultures and beliefs persist down through history. I have seen speculation that the Catholic Church practice of celibacy in the priesthood and among monks caused the dark ages, a tremendous loss of some of the best and brightest minds that were never propagated to the next generation. Roger Bacon comes to mind, as a man whose genius should have been available to succeeding generations.

If everyone that earned $1,000,000 or more this year chose to never have children, we would lose access to the family history of the most successful achievers of our age. Those that work low-paying jobs will continue to procreate. Future generations would be ill-balanced to maintain a national economy. And poorly placed to defend the nation against foreign military and economic attack.

Now think, if we stop having babies, and China and Russia keep having babies – we leave the next generation attracting more Mexicans, Chinese sneaking across the Canadian border – none of which are eligible for military service – and more at risk for more violent challenges to national security.

The dilemma is almost as poignant as the soldier in war. For a soldier, on average his chances for surviving if he runs away – which destroys the army, which loses the battle, which puts our runaway soldier at the mercy of the enemy. If he stands, though, he risks being killed in battle, but the risk is slighter than if the battle is given away. Should the soldier run or stand? Should a woman choose to have a child, so that her family history and her husband’s family history will persist in the next generation?

Failing to have kids is a genetic equivalent of suicide – your genes, what you would have taught your children, is lost to the world. Adopting kids, you can teach them part of the history; like all kids, parts will be lost in translation. But the genetic heritage is simply lost. Whether you carry the genes for greatness, for wisdom, for stunningly outstanding mistakes or for resistance to viruses – those particular contributions to the gene pool are lost.

China mandated, with draconian laws and punishments, a single child per couple. That has slowed their national population growth. Their current disregard for public safety, air and water quality, and sane industrial working conditions, bids fair to reduce that problem even further.

But Malaysia, Bill (and Hilary?) Clinton’s friends, and other places are growing rapidly and rabidly to be a center of over-populated Islam fundamentalists. They look to push their control and ideology around the world. Other places with more people that food are looking for weak places to push people and snatch food. We have to be careful, that good intentions to save the earth don’t doom us to conquest by those that refuse to discipline themselves and don’t have the time, patience, or interest in worrying about the health of the planet. Many are looking for food for tonight.

Not sure if you read my post that touched on this question. But here’s a couple of cents worth.

http://cathouseteri.blogspot.com/2008/06/where-have-all-young-girls-gone.html