The recent media attention focused on the octuplets concerns me, and got me thinking about our collective impact on the planet compared to other animals.  We rightly assert our reproductive freedom in the U.S., and indeed no one should be prevented from conceiving children if they so desire.  What gives me pause is that we seem to think more is always better.

Anyone who has reared insects in captivity knows how incredibly prolific insects can be, and there is a good reason why most insects bear so many offspring.  Most of their babies, be they larvae or nymphs, won’t survive to adulthood.  They will be victims of predators, parasites, disease, competition from siblings, inclement weather, accidents in the course of molting to the next stage in the life cycle, and innumerable other environmental factors.  Nature has its checks and balances that way.  Homo sapiens, on the other hand, tends to have rather limited reproductive potential, and exceptions to that rule are often celebrated.

Considering our current economic climate, it is not a stretch to say that multiple births are acclaimed as a kind of “economic stimulus package” (Look!  It’s eight new consumers!), and so the family is showered with gifts from corporations looking for publicity as do-gooders coming to the rescue of the suddenly financially-burdened parents.

Every other species would love to be able to do what we have:  eliminate our mortality factors, eradicate competing species, modify our “habitat” to serve the purposes of our species only, and, to top it all off, overcome infertility.  The problem is that we are probably already exceeding the environmental carrying capacity of the planet to sustain us much farther into the future.  The more of us there are, the more natural resources we demand, the more space we occupy.  Arguably, we are also outstripping our economic carrying capacity because more goods are demanded faster, spurring automated manufacturing that puts people out of work and unable to afford the items they demanded in the first place.

Scientific journalists, in fact journalists of all stripes, are being remiss in ignoring the motives of advertisers and companies that benefit from our determination to become super fertile; and while the benefits of reproductive technology might not deserve the stigma and condemnation that human cloning has generated, they should be treated with a lot more caution than they are now.  After all, reproductive freedom, like any freedom, comes with responsibility.

Tags: Octuplets Fertility Carrying Capacity Super Economics

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