Posts Tagged Reproduction

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Happy Birthday to the 7 billionth person!

Have you heard? The world population hits 7 billion today!

Conflicting reports put the 7 billionth baby as having been born in a few different places (The Philippines! India! China!) but it matters little to me: for the most part the milestone is symbolic.

So .. what of it? Behind all the rhetoric and symbolism, what does this milestone really mean for us, for our families, and for our quality of life? What kind of world is the 7 billionth baby in being born into?

Lots of people have weighed in on what this all means.

As Miriam pointed out back in July, coverage of global issues related to population, health, and ...

Have you heard? The world population hits 7 billion today!

Conflicting reports put the 7 billionth baby as having been born in a few different places (The Philippines! India! China!) but it matters ...
By Miriam • 13 years ago

The New York Times thinks debating reproduction is white men’s work

Notice anything strange about this photo? It’s a screenshot taken from this NY Times debate room story about declining birth rates. In case you can’t tell, only one of the seven pundits is a woman. Despite the racial dynamics of the population boom, only of them seems to be a person of color.

Totally, makes sense right? When debating reproduction, especially birth rates, people with a uterus aren’t that important to the story. Not at all.

On a related note, I’m pretty sick of anxiety-provoking stories about birth rates. Either women are threatening the earth by having too many children (these women are usually poor and of color) or they aren’t having enough children to keep the world going (these ...

Notice anything strange about this photo? It’s a screenshot taken from this NY Times debate room story about declining birth rates. In case you can’t tell, only one of the seven pundits is a woman. ...
By Miriam • 13 years ago

Should artificial insemination be regulated?

An article in yesterday’s New York Times tells the story of one anonymous sperm donor whose donation has resulted in at least 150 offspring.

Sperm banks, as they are called, are as yet unregulated in the US. That means that it’s up to those institutions to set guidelines and policies, like one’s that might cap the number of times one donor’s sperm can be used. According to the article, it doesn’t appear many sperm banks in the US are self-regulating.

The result is an unusual scenario of huge extended families of half-siblings, many who don’t know how large their family really is. Of course, the internet is stepping in to solve this problem–websites like donorsiblingregistry.com are allowing kids born from ...

An article in yesterday’s New York Times tells the story of one anonymous sperm donor whose donation has resulted in at least 150 offspring.

Sperm banks, as they are called, are as yet unregulated in the US. ...