Rh Bill & Malthusian Theory Essay

In 2011, we have now seven billion people living in this planet. Unfortunately, Earth’s estimated carrying capacity is only about eleven to twelve billion people. With such a big problem we are facing today, it is important to analyze and examine what the scholars of the past have to say of our increasing population. One of the famous population theorists of that time is Thomas Malthus. In 1798, Malthus proposes his own theory about population. According to him, human populations grow exponentially while food production grows at an arithmetic rate. Thus, if the increase in our population is not controlled properly, then the number of the people would increase faster than the food supply. He stated that if this growth rate is allowed to continue, it would lead to a food shortage. To solve this problem, he proposed three solutions. The first one is positive check. This method increases death rates due to wars, famines, disease, and natural disasters. Preventive or negative check is the other one. It lowers the birth rate which is accomplished through abortion, birth control, and celibacy. The last one is moral restraint which is refraining from marriage until the time when a person is capable of supporting a family. This two hundred-year-old theory is now happening these days. It predicted the problems of food shortage that the world is experiencing today because of the uncontrolled increase in population. Still, I cannot fully agree with Malthus because there are things that he forgot to take into consideration when he formulated this theory. One is the ability of man to increase the food production as stated by Marx. He failed to recognize man’s ability to use science and technology to solve these population problems like the possible developments in agricultural technology which can increases the supply of food. Maybe during that time, science is making a slow progress that he assume we cannot remedy these problems. Another one is the use of birth control as a way of reducing population. He believed that having only few kids is the only way to stop or control the increasing growth rate. Moreover, he confused the desire for sexual relationships with the desire to have children. He didn’t realize that a person can still engage in a sexual relationship and still don’t have a child with the help of contraceptives. Although Malthus’ theory has some loopholes, the essentials of the theory have not yet been demolished. There are some assumptions that turned out to be true. RH bill The reproductive health bill which is now a law is the most controversial bill in the Philippines for decades which date back to 1967. The bill is composed of topics which deal with issues about family planning, maternal and child health, and reproductive and sexual conditions. Its main objective is to lift the reproductive standards of Filipinos by promoting respect for life, informed choice, birth spacing and responsible parenthood which is accordance with the human rights standards. It also guarantees access to medically-safe, legal and quality reproductive health care services and relevant information. Although it has promising merits, I do not support the bill because of some of its faulty assumptions. One is the assumption that overpopulation is the cause of poverty. In truth, there is really no relationship between overpopulation and poverty but RH bill still insists that it is the cause of the worsening poverty in our country. It is true that it is one of the factors but it is never the root cause of poverty. What is the primary cause of poverty are the corruption and the bad governance of the administration. In fact, we are one of the most corrupt countries in Southeast Asia. Another assumption is that Philippines is overpopulated. In reality, there is no overpopulation in our country. It is true that our cities are densely populated but in some parts of our country, there are small numbers of people and some are still uninhabited. One more problem in the bill is the belief that contraceptives will prevent abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. We should not entrust our safety to the use of these contraceptives in the prevention of STDs because according to some studies, there is no proof that condoms, for example, is effective in preventing STDs. In the case of abortions, it did not really lessen the incidents. According to a study in Spain, a 10-year period of an increasing use of contraceptive devises had been paralleled by a significantly increasing number of abortions. Though it is already a law, I hope that it can still be corrected so that it can truly uplift the standards of living of the Filipino people and be the solution to lessen the country’s underemployment and booming population.