Why aren't their any reproduction laws in Africa?

They have a hard enough time enforcing any semblance of law in most african countries to begin with, much less something like this. Should they if they could? well, you also have to take into account how young the life expectancy is and how many families depend on their kids for additional income. More so it would hide the reason for these deaths rather than address them.

If they could it might help in the very short term by allowing a reallocation of resources but in the end it wouldn’t solve any of the root causes and would very likely create serious new issues to be addressed.

1) When a culture is in free-fall, laws limiting the number of children are simply unenforceable.

2) In a desperately poor country, the only way to survive is to have many hands to lighten the load of endless chores. The only way to get many hands is to give birth to them. If many, many of these babies die it is a sad thing, but some of them do survive. Because of that, people will continue to have large numbers of pregnancies, just as people did in the US in the 19th century, in hopes that some babies will survive.

3) Hope is one of the last things to go. The people of Africa still have hope. Thus, they still believe that at least some of their babies will survive. As a result, they see each new pregnancy as a possibility, a way to a better life.

How could you enforce a law like this? Many of these people have little food or water, they can’t pay for birth control. And I wonder if the sex act is the one enjoyable thing they have!

It would help if the pope would stop telling them birth control is a sin.

The laws that they already have are virtually unenforcable. They have no structured law enforcement, they are desperatly poor, and are basically run by malitia. I am sure that birth control is not on their priority list as things to worry about.

First Africa is not a country. It is a continent composed of many countries. So that would involve many countries creating this law. Some are not a free for all as others. Some are fine. Many are also compromised of several different religions and traditions that date back hundreds of years.
There is the point that they are poor, medical supplies are limited and in some areas almost non existent. Many of the good doctors that are their are being poached by other countries because they work at less cost and can provide their family the opportunity to leave poor conditions behind. Of course there also is the matter of rape and of genicide of certain tribes. It simply is can not be done.

Whoa. As Americans (yes, Canada is a part of North America, and that makes you American), what other continents and countries do with their own bodies and reproductive organs, is none of our business.
I think Africa is more in need of food than birth control.

No one has the right to regulate the reproduction of human adults. Sorry.

@lynfromnm I agree!!!

They write any laws against reproducing or even limits…they then have to enforce them and that costs money. Plus then they have to support the people they enforce through birthing efforts or illegal births and babies and then contraceptive programs. This all costs money most of these countries don’t have.

Don’t worry too much about your question, as cruel as it sounds, Mother Nature and AIDS is working on the problem down there.

How would any of us like to have others tell us what is best for us – as adults – and then make that judgment into a law? Perhaps individuals make choices that are unhealthy, but that is their right. By making laws that restrict the decision making rights of others, in effect you are saying that they are lower than you, and cannot make their own decisions.

Tell the Chinese gov’t that.

@lynfromnm When people cannot make their own responsible decisions, it is self-evident. People who have not been educated, whether they are 3 years old or 33 years old need to be regulated by outside sources. This does not in any way say they are ‘lower’ than anybody, simply that they are in serious need of educating.

All underdevoloped nations have a population problem because children represent wealth, since they represent labor. When the structural problems change, the birth rate goes down without the intervention of laws. It happened in England during the Industrial Revolution.

@yarnlady – we are in agreement about education, I do not think that it gives others the right to impose their standards, however.

Why single out Africa? Rape and disease are everywhere. Starving children are everywhere. Population control should be universal.

I think we know why Africa. It’s full of, you know, the word starts with an “N”. This is a condescending, ugly question, it makes a lot of unwarranted assumptions, it is, whether consciously or unconsciously racist, and it betrays a great deal of ignorance about history, since every country, including every “white” European country, went through a similar phase of unconstrained procreation.

@lynfromnm – You make your pro-ethics pro-life view sound so easy. So, sorry, no, we do have the right to regulate who can reproduce, especially if the one’s doing it aren’t even intelligent enough to understand that having a kid is almost a definite morbidity to the child and sometimes to the mother. You must be ignorant to the status of the African continent at the moment if you think adults should have children over there. The country is incredibly impoverished and the death rate for all of these children are high. So give yourself a congratulatory high five for supporting life being stripped away from a child in a hideous way from the moment it takes its first breathe, that’s disgusting that you think that way.

@evandad – Very true, I do agree with you 100% population control should be used every where, I have intentionally singled out Africa and 3rd world countries for the epitome of this reason.

@faye – “Why aren’t there any personal morality or state laws against reproducing in Africa (or other 3rd world countries).”

@Pandora – You’ve called me out a mistake. I am referring to say Countries in Africa. Not all countries in Africa are suffering.

@LeopardGecko I answered your question before you had to edit. I still say it would be impossible to enforce no matter which rock from the sun it was. Good quip there.

@faye – Thank you for your answer. No quip, it was always there, I only have edited the title of the question, everything else remains the same. Not so sly.

To clarify, I am not racist, and if any of you who have questioned this, please read the question again and realize I said 3rd world countries. There are more 3rd world continents and countries than Africa. Also, Africa is not a country on it’s own remember, there a plenty of places that are under control, I am not speaking opposed to those

@LeopardGecko I was referring to “big rock orbiting earth” There used to be a sitcom called third rock from the sun about aliens. I thought you were referring to that.

Any economy that is still primarily agrarian has these reproductive issues. You keep asking why it doesn’t happen in developed countries. The answer is self-evident. They are no longer agrarian. When they were, they showed the same reproductive profile as Africa.

No matter what names you call me in private or in public messages, history will not change. I’m a bitch? That doesn’t change the answer that all populations go through this phase. I’m a faggot trying on pretty underpants? Fine, if you feel the need to say that.

History remains unmoved by the epithets you reserve for me. Perhaps instead of taking the effort to attack me in public and in private, you could use your time to better effect by studying the phases of economic development, which require no reproductive “laws” in order to progress through the natural stages of development, contrary to your belief.

I argue that a population that sees 20,000 people starve to death every single day of the year could use some outside regulation. They are not behaving in a responsible manner. The purpose of the laws as proposed would be to help prevent this horrible situation.

[mod says] Personal attacks are not permitted, and have been removed. Please refrain from name calling and the like.

I’m quite surprised that so many think it’s OK to dictate values and lifestyle to other people.

@YARNLADY Whom do you propose should violate the region’s sovereignty and impose these regulations on the irresponsible Negroes? How shall they be enforced? An invasion? Force of arms? Should the US move its fighting forces from the Middle East to Africa? Who would pay for that? Would a big tax increase be OK with you? Could anything better be done with expenditures that large? I eagerly await a response from you and/or the OP.

I suspect that part of the difficulty many African countries have with self-regulation is that for so long European countries stepped in and regulated everything for them, being “good colonial masters.” However, most of the “master” countries never really planned for their colonies to become self-supporting, independent, adult countries.

In addition, country borders in Africa are often the result of which European country got there first with the most guns, and as a result they cross traditional and tribal boundaries. It is hard to be a real country when you are cobbled together from a random selection of tribes speaking different languages, having different histories, and having strong and not always positive feelings about the others so included.

@pdworkin Countries have governments for a good reason, and part of that is to impose order on the people. In the United States, we choose the legislature to pass the laws for us, except in California where there is a referendum system to allow the people to actually initiate law. Other countries have their own systems of law, which the citizens accept as the natural order. A good example of a country that taken an active role in population control is China.

I find your tone to be overly condescending and rude. I have no idea where you got the nonsense you are spouting, it certainly did not come from anything I said.

You said, and I quote:

I argue that a population that sees 20,000 people starve to death every single day of the year could use some outside regulation.

Did you forget? You could just scroll up and re-read it.

And you chose to put the worst possible interpretation on it rather than ask For a definition of my use of the word outside I meant ‘governmental’ intervention (their own government) since personal responsibility is lacking.

Fine. What I understood is what you now claim you didn’t mean. By “Outside” we were to understand “Local”. What word do you use when you mean exogenous? Indigenous? Or are you just hoist on your own petard, and now you are being disingenuous?

[mod says] Flame off, folks.

flame? really? ok, if you say so.

Reduction of illiteracy and poverty leads to reduction in reproduction. The Chinese model won’t work in Africa.

@lynfromnm Would you take exception to what the Chinese gov’t does then? You didn’t say. @mattbrowne I agree it wouldn’t work in Africa- first people need food. water, safety.

The question has nothing to do with the Chinese government. The people of China allow their government a ridiculous amount of power, dictating every aspect of people’s private lives. I don’t support that. I don’t think private lives are government business.

I don’t support butting into anyone else’s business.

@lynfromnm To my way of thinking, anytime someone else’s actions impacts other people, that makes it our business.

I can understand that, but as I think you said earlier, the way to change people’s attitudes (and in that process, their actions) is through education, not by dictating laws to them and forcing them to change their lifestyles.

Yes, education is the best way, but not the only, or even fastest way. When their government chooses to manage their country, they should use both methods.

For the third time, it has nothing to do with education, laws or anything else other than the stage of development. This has been known by anthropologists, demographers, epidemiologists, NGO’s and everyone else for more than 40 years. If you keep insisting it’s something else, you are merely revealing your ignorance, like the racist OP who doesn’t know he’s a racist.

@dpworkin: If you are addressing me, please read my responses a little more carefully. I originally stated that it is wrong to interfere with the decisions of other people and force one’s values upon them and followed that with saying that education, rather than laws, is what changes peoples’ lifestyles. I agree wholeheartedly with you that a stage of development is what we are seeing here. I also am aware that education ( knowledge) is one of the key elements by which a civilization moves from one stage to the next. And that’s all I said.

It is not at all helpful to start throwing around epithets like “ignorance” and “racist” . Those words end dialogues and produce nothing positive.

Thanks for the lecture. I was addressing @YARNLADY. Now I will address you: I quite dislike being instructed how to post and what to say. I always say precisely what I mean, and I always feel I have very good reasons for doing so. You may disagree, but it is beyond presumptuous of you to issue me correctives for behavior that you don’t like. I had a mom, she’s dead, and I’m glad she’s dead.

@dpworkin I’m delighted that I am not your mom, and I did not instruct you. You didn’t state who you were addressing, so that is not my problem. My response was the one immediately above yours, so I had every reason to think you were addressing me.

I did not, and will never, tell you what to do. I didn’t offer any suggestions to you or any correctives. I merely told you what effect your words and tone had on me, and, in my considerable experience, the effect your words and tone would have on others. Obviously that isn’t of importance to you, so I can’t think why you responded.