And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-envelope-info: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (biowar) >Subject: [BIOWAR] Infective Contraceptive Agent? >Date: Mon, 25 Jan 99 03:22:46 GMT >X-Mailer: Quarterdeck Message Center [1.1] >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Negative Population Growth: Why We Must, and How We Could, Achieve It > >John B. Hall, University of Hawaii > >From Population and Environment, Volume 18, Number 1, September 1996 > >Humanity has been all too successful in remodeling much of the natural world >to serve its own purposes. While this has permitted an unprecedented >increase in the number of humans that the Earth will support, it appears >that we have exceeded the limits of our natural life-support systems and are >rapidly destroying the very resources needed to sustain our existence. We >need to turn to the conquest of one last frontier, perhaps the most >difficult and dangerous one of all, the mastery of ourselves. > >A prosperous, healthy, educated, humane, and democratic form of life for >everyone would require the numbers of people consuming the world's resources >to come into some sort of reasonable balance with those resources. A brief >look at the list of pressing world problems will make it obvious that the >present world population is already far greater than can be sustained, even >at present levels of misery, for very many more generations. > >Modern economic systems have an absolute dependence on massive utilization >of fossil fuels which are being consumed at an extravagant rate, and which, >of course, are not being renewed. Severe problems exist in finding adequate >replacements for the enormous amounts of energy represented by this rapidly >diminishing resource. Meanwhile, the carbon dioxide being produced threatens >to alter the climate of the Earth via the greenhouse effect, with possible >dramatic rises in sea level, bleaching and destruction of coral reefs, and >the inundation of heavily populated, and often agriculturally vital, coastal >areas. Soil erosion is removing topsoil 20 to 40 times as rapidly as it is >being replenished at the same time that burgeoning populations require more >and more food, and dwindling forests are cleared to provide the necessary >extra crop land. Attempts to farm or graze marginal lands has led to rapid >desertification of vast areas. Pollutants in the atmosphere destroy ozone >and allow increasing fluxes of ultraviolet light to reach the Earth's >surface, not only leading to increases in human skin cancer, but potentially >damaging crop plants and reducing agricultural productivity. Many arid areas >are irrigated by pumping ground water to the surface, often at rates far in >excess of natural recharge-another short-sighted mining of a limited >resource that cannot continue for long. Most fisheries are in trouble, with >many in a state of near collapse as increasing efforts lead to less and less >return, and only a total ban on fishing for a few years will allow recovery >of some stocks. Rain forests and old growth forests at all latitudes are >rapidly being cleared in the presence of an accelerating demand for wood >products. Replanting and natural regrowth lag far behind this destruction, >another example of the human propensity to consume resource capital even >though the income that could have been derived from it will be needed in the >future. Such drastic modifications of the natural environment are >accompanied by the extinction of innumerable species, which are vanishing >far more rapidly than they can be described and studied. > >All of this has had enormous impact on human societies. Famine, war, ethnic >strife, and disease are prevalent. Urban ghettoes all over the world teem >with people who cannot find useful employment. And as our sympathies are >overwhelmed by the sheer mass of human suffering, we turn away from it in >despair and cease to respond to the pain of others. Our range of concern >narrows and narrows, until only those of our own race, culture, class, and >religious group command our sympathies, and we hide behind the gates of >closed, guarded communities or the boundaries of tribe or ethnic group and >reject all others. This loss of civility impoverishes the spirit and we >become indifferent to genocide, starvation, poverty, ignorance, and want, >and willing to fight all others for the land, space, and resources needed >for the maintenance and expansion of our own group. Death squads proliferate >to murder those who are politically active or just inconvenient, and >wholesale massacres of "alien" peoples become almost a matter of routine. > >All of these things are related to the density of human populations and >competition for the resources required for their welfare. With the present >world population, many critical resources are being rapidly exhausted, and >conflicts between peoples intensify even as unpredictable changes in climate >and other factors affecting the livability of the Earth occur. > >If we value human culture, treasure civility, democracy, education, health, >and a high standard of living in general, there is evident need for not only >an end to further growth of the Earth's population, but also an actual and >substantial decrease in the number of people the Earth is asked to support. > >Many people are highly concerned about the population problem. International >conferences are held, efforts are made to persuade world leaders of the >seriousness of the problem, educational programs are launched, and family >planning services are promoted. The rate of growth of the world population >has slowed, and if present trends continue, the population should stabilize >after "only" one or two more doublings. This will, no doubt, postpone >disaster so that it arrives a few years later than it will if no decrease in >growth rate had occurred, but will hardly prevent it. > >The necessary decrease in population size is most unlikely to come about >voluntarily. Those few countries where the birthrate is slightly below >replacement level have generally become quite concerned and some have >attempted to raise it again. No nation or cultural group likes to believe >that it is dwindling in size. No country wants to feel that it is losing >population and that its own people might soon be replaced by fecund >foreigners who are clearly all too ready to move into its relatively "empty" >spaces. Some countries are moving to defend borders. A decrease in world >population will be peaceful only if it affects everyone, and not just the >few highly advanced countries where it is found at present. > >Rapid reduction in population size is necessary to prevent disaster, but >many cultures still value high fertility levels; generations may be required >to change these attitudes. These generations we do not have. Most people in >the population studies field assume that individual control over >reproductive decisions is a basic human right, which can not be tampered >with. Yet if exercise of this right is leading to universal disaster, is it >not time that the possibility of modifying it was at least considered? When >the consequences of any course of action are clearly highly destructive of >human welfare, how can one maintain that, never-the-less, people have an >innate right to pursue that course of action? I believe that we must not >hinder the efforts of governments to restrict reproductive rights among >their own people, in order to bring the human population of the Earth and of >their country into balance with the longterm carrying capacity at the level >of wellbeing that the population wishes to maintain. > >It may be argued that the government machinery necessary to monitor the >reproductive decisions of individual families and the constant interference >with these decisions that would be necessary to maintain a sub-replacement >level of fertility can not be afforded by most countries, would be >inconsistent with a democratic system of government, and if attempted, would >be the source of constant resentment and resistance. Only in highly >authoritarian countries like China is an approach to this level of social >control feasible, and even in China there appears to be widespread evasion >of the rules in many rural areas. This would certainly be a cogent argument >if a reduction of average fertility on a global scale required the >imposition of government regulations and monitoring. However, there are >alternative ways of achieving this objective. > >The immune system, which usually functions to protect us from disease, but >also is involved in allergies and the rejection of transplanted organs, can >be harnessed to contraception (Anderson & Alexander, 1983; Aldhous, 1994). A >contraceptive vaccine has been suggested for veterinary use (Miller & Dean, >1993). In this application, the female animal to be sterilized is injected >with preparations of the zone pellucida (the outer envelope of the egg cell) >from a different species of animal. The injected female responds to this >foreign material by producing antibodies against it. These antibodies, >however, also recognize the different but related material on her own eggs, >a process called "cross-reaction," and attack these, destroying them. The >death of these egg cells in the ovary releases the controls on maturation of >immature egg cells and they begin to develop. As they approach maturity, >they are also recognized by the immune system and destroyed in turn. A >run-away cycle of maturation and destruction follows, and within a few >months all of the potential egg cells in the animal's ovary have matured and >been destroyed, and the female has been nonsurgically sterilized (Skinner, >et al, 1984). Such a dramatic procedure would probably have little >application in human contraception except in rare cases in which the person >concerned wished to be sterilized, and since it would probably induce >menopause, is unlikely to be acceptable even then. However, many less >absolute contraceptive actions can also be mediated by the immune system. > >Many cases of natural infertility occur because the woman produces >antibodies against sperm which are recognized as foreign bodies by her >tissues (Bronson, et al, 1984). Vaccines could probably be developed that >would stimulate more women to produce such antibodies with a corresponding >decrease in their fertility (Primakoff, et al, 1988; Primakoff, 1994). In >yet another approach, women have been vaccinated with peptide sequences >similar to those found in certain hormones involved in reproduction (Talwar >et al, 1993; Talwar et al, 1994). Very effective vaccines can be produced by >splicing gene segments for the desired peptide sequences into some of the >genes of the vaccinia virus (Moss, et al, 1984; Talwar et al, 1993; Talwar >et al, 1994) and then using this virus to vaccinate the subject, just as it >was used to vaccinate against smallpox. The peptide sequences produced by >the virus stimulate antibody formation, the antibodies would cross react >with the naturally occurring hormone in the woman's body, and reproduction >could be inhibited. Many such alternatives that harness the immune system in >the service of contraception are available. > >None of these approaches would represent anything other than an addition to >the existing armory of contraceptive systems, except for one thing: vaccinia >virus is used as a vehicle for stimulating the immune system because it >grows locally in the body, and produces an effective stimulus to the immune >system, but very rarely spreads spontaneously to other people. However, >there is no reason why the required antigens (the substances that stimulate >the immune system) could not be introduced into any other virus, such as one >of the more than 200 viruses responsible for the common cold, that would >spread spontaneously through the population, and thus could serve as a form >of infectious contraceptive. Depending on the nature of the antigen used, >and their response to it, infected individuals would have more or less >reduced fertility levels for longer or shorter periods of time. The effects >would necessarily be uneven and it is unlikely that all individuals or >populations would be equally affected. If a variety of antigens and viruses >were used, however, these differences would average out and the average >global fertility could be reduced to any desired level. The technology to >carry out this global fertility regulation is not visionary. All of the >knowledge and techniques that would be required are available today. >Probably the creation and release of a number of different agents would be >necessary to reach the desired level of negative population growth, as the >effect of any one would be likely to be partial and geographically uneven >due to the random accidents of distribution and infection. > >Obviously, the use of infectious contraceptive agents raises profound moral >and ethical questions, especially that of informed consent and particularly >if one assumes that choices about reproduction are intrinsically the sole >right of the couples (or often the male partner?) concerned. However, it is >quite plain that eventually the growth of human populations will be curbed, >and almost certain that negative growth will occur, as population overshoots >even the short-range capacity of the Earth to support it, and massive >mortality from disease, famine, and genocide takes its course. > >We are in the position of a skilled hunter, perched on a mountain ridge, who >sees a bus load of children stalled on a curve on an adjacent ridge, while a >truck comes hurtling clown the road above, oblivious to the hazard out of >sight around the curve below. The hunter has no way of communicating with >either party, but he could shoot the truck driver, or blow out a tire, with >the almost certain result that the truck will leave the road on the next >curve and plunge into the canyon, killing the driver but sparing the bus and >its occupants. This is obviously a morally equivocal situation, yet to do >nothing, though sparing the hunter any legal responsibility for the death of >the trucker, is a morally questionable choice also, since the trucker as >well as the children will almost certainly be killed in the collision. >Similarly, failing to arrest and reverse the present growth of human >populations will almost certainly lead to a devastating collapse in human >numbers-the deaths of hundreds of millions or billions of people is quite >likely. In the process many major ecosystems will be degraded beyond >recovery, innumerable other species will become extinct and many >irreplaceable non-living, nonrenewable resources will be exhausted. This >will certainly impair the capacity of the Earth to ever again support human >societies at a high level of culture and prosperity for any significant >number of people, while at the same time insuring that the right to >reproduce as one sees fit becomes meaningless as people loose the means to >insure their own survival, much less to provide for the children they would >like to bear. The trucker will die, whether the hunter shoots him or not. It >is Hobson's choice, but we must accept the fact that free choice in >reproductive decisions is the one freedom we cannot, in fact, afford, if we >are to preserve any of the others. > >REFERENCES > >Aldhous, P. (December 2, 1994). A booster for contraceptive vaccines. >Science 266 1484-1486. > >Anderson, D.J., & Alexander, N.J. (1983). A new look at antifertility >vaccines. Fertility & Sterility 40, 557-571. > >Bronson, R., Cooper, G., & Rosenfeld, D. (1984). Sperm antibodies: their >role in infertility. Fertility & Sterility 42, 171 -183. > >Millar, S.E., & Dean, J. (1993). Targeting the zone pellucida for >immunocontraception. In R.K. Naz (Ed.). Immunology of reproduction, Cha. 14, >pp. 293-313. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. > >Moss, B., Smith, G.L., Gerin, J.L., & Purcell, R.H. (1984). Live recombinant >vaccinia virus protects chimpanzees against hepatitis B. Nature 311, 67-69. > >Please address correspondence to Dr. Hall, Professor Emeritus of >Microbiology 5326 Keikilani Circle, Honolulu, HI 96821-1515. > >Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Volume >18, Number 1, September 1996 1996 Human Sciences Press, Inc. > > >*********************************************************************** >BIOWAR-L Biowar/Bioterrorism/Toxins Mailing List >To unsubscribe or subscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >with the following text: unsubscribe BIOWAR-L or subscribe BIOWAR-L. >Post to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Archive: ><http://www.sonic.net/~west/digest.htm>. BIOWAR Web site: ><http://www.sonic.net/~west/biowar.htm>. -Wes Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
