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From the Horse’s Mouth: Selections from Science Czar and Neo-Malthusian John Holdern


With minimal editing, here are some choice selections from the oeuvre of John Holdern, President Barack Obama’s science czar, courtesy of Matt Barber.

Mr. Holdern is a Harvard professor and a self styled “neo-Malthusian.

On the regulation of population growth: “There exists ample authority under which population growth could be regulated. It has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.”

On adding sterilants to drinking water: "[a]dding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control," such an approach would have to "meet some rather stiff requirements; ...be uniformly effective; ...free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects;" and pass both PETA and AARP muster by having "no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock."

On comprehensive planetary regulation: "…a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable. The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits."

On the benefits of sterilizing women over men: "…sterilizing women after their second or third child" may be more practical than sterilizing men, and the science czar proposes a "long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin" at puberty and then "might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births."

On Birth Prevention: "Why should the law not be able to prevent a person from having more than two children?... compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution. [N]either the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution mentions a right to reproduce."

Comments

Anonymous said…
hey what about saltpeter everyone thought it was used by rhe army when I went through basic trainig
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