Lessons for Filipinos on world population

(Editor’s note: In the first part, Father Gaston shows how worldwide the total fertility rate has declined, with richer countries having more older people than young people. He explains that in general, a total fertility rate, or children per woman, of 2.1 is necessary to replace a country’s population. In the Philippines, where mortality rates are higher, it is estimated to be around 2.29. This article is excerpted from Familia et Vita—published in 2007—the Quarterly Review of the Pontifical Council for the Family, in the Vatican, where the author served for five years. A priest of the Archdiocese of Manila, Father Gaston, who has a doctorate in sacred theology, is a professor at the Graduate School of Theology of the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City, where he was the dean. On October 31, 2009, he presented a version of this paper in the annual meeting of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists at the University of Mississippi School of Law.)

Conclusion

Rule out population control

Population control has to be ruled out as a solution to poverty. This in no way means telling the people to have as many children as they can, to uncontrollably “go forth and multiply” (as some erroneously claim the Church teaches). Rather, parents should be guided and supported to attain the number of children they can generously and responsibly raise and educate. For some spouses, this means being open to having one child or two; for others, five, 10 or 12; or in some cases, 15 or even more.

Neither the government nor the Church may compel, instruct, or encourage spouses to raise a specified number of children, as what population control programs definitely try to do, either through massive propaganda, or through deceptive and coercive policies. Rather, the government and the Church should form and guide the people to reflect on their actual circumstances, and to freely, generously and responsibly decide whether to have another child now, or not to have another child for the time being or indefinitely.

Population control has to be ruled out as a quick-fix solution to poverty. On the contrary, any economic, social or political policy proposed to solve poverty should take advantage of, rather than suppress, our abundant human resources. As Dr. Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Prize winner in economic science, explained, “human capital,” which refers to the skills, education, health and training of individuals, comprises around 80 percent of the wealth of advanced countries, and hence “can be neglected [only] at a country’s peril.”

(“Human Capital and Poverty,” in Familia et Vita, 1996).

Any solution to poverty furthermore has to take into account, support and promote our closely knit family ties, the time and dedication parents give to their children, the care children and extended families give to the elderly whom we truly love, the moral principles and holistic training children receive from their parents and all the other values that the Filipino family has until now maintained, in spite of the pressures exerted upon it by secularism. The contribution to the national economy of these services and values that find their dynamism within the family is impossible to calculate, but they provide a key—the most important one—to good governance in the public and private sectors, a condition sine qua non to attain stability in society, reach economic development and diminish poverty. –FATHER GREGORY D. GASTON, STD, Manila Times