ABSTRACT
If we are to avoid causing massive and unnecessary harm to both present and future people, we must halt population growth and eventually pursue population reduction. This chapter surveys a variety of policy measures that could be undertaken to accomplish that task. The most promising measures considered are those that lower fertility by increasing people’s reproductive freedom. These measures include increasing people’s access to contraception and family planning, improving sex education, and pursuing gender equity. Preference-adjusting interventions done through mass media campaigns are also supported. These measures could play a crucial role in countering pronatalist social pressures and encouraging people to be more reflective about their procreative choices. Incentive-based schemes, such as providing financial rewards for having a small family, could be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the multitude of concerns with their implementation provide good reasons to be cautious in adopting them. Deliberate coercive measures to lower fertility, such as the risk of severe legal punishment for having more than two children, have too many moral and practical shortcomings to be pursued.
