860 



available. But the social and psychological obstacles to the use of this 

 present technology in areas where the population increase is steepest 

 are so substantial that major efforts are under way to discover more 

 acceptable technologies. Attending these efforts is the hope that better 

 formulas or contrivances can be found which will somehow meet the 

 psychological, ethical, and religious, as well as the physiological, re- 

 quirements of population control. 



One diplomatic problem posed by this situation is that the research 

 into potential new technologies is being sponsored by and conducted 

 in the developed countries — subject to their standards of medical re- 

 liability and safety — while the primary need for the technology is in 

 the Li)Cs whose standards might well be qualified by this greater 

 need. 



Another diplomatic problem arises from the sheer sensitivity of the 

 issue itself; communication across international boundaries is diffi- 

 cult on any issue involving conflict of values or differences in national 

 purpose, but more so when the subject matter is deeply personal as 

 well as a concern of national policy. Regardless of the objectivity and 

 professionalism with which bilateral aid in matters of population con- 

 trol is offered, the opportunity for misimderstanding of intent and, 

 suspicion of motives is likely to remain. Perhaps in this field more 

 than others, the most hopeful route is through multilateral action. 



There are many reasons to consider the need for national and global 

 efforts to stem the rate of population increase. Population density af- 

 fects the ability of human societies to preserve the quality of life, to 

 make available adequate resources to sustain life, to maintain order, 

 to govern, to insure the security of the individual from crime, to 

 maintain the security of nations from tension or even insurrection, and 

 to reduce the possibility of international conflicts. Population numbers 

 and rate of increase have a profound bearing on all of these. 



Considerable emphasis was placed, in earlier parts of this study, on 

 the need for reliable factual information about all aspects of demogra- 

 phy, population movement, the mathematics of human increase, be- 

 navioral differences of various geographic and social segments of pop- 

 ulation, and the like. The advantages of collecting such information in 

 an international rather than a national agency, and of standardizing 

 internationally the procedures and parameters used, would appear to 

 be evident. Moreover, the relationship of numbers of population to 

 the questions of food, urban industrialization, education and training, 

 and public administration, is functionally important. All these matters 

 become subjects for diplomatic discussion, related to aid to the LDCs 

 and to the rational management of food and commerce. 



A study prepared by the Office of the Foreign Secretary of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciencies, announced in July 1971, offers some spe- 

 cific recommendations in the field of population management for adop- 

 tion by multinational organizations. Said the study : 



The UnitPd Nations and Its specialized agencies, particularly the UN Fund 

 for Population Activities, the World Health Organization, and UNESCO, ought 

 to give high priority to helping their member states learn from one another 

 about population goals and the conduct of fertility-reducing programs • * *. 



The United Nations Development Program and other UN agencies and re- 

 gional organizations, such as the Pan American Health Organization and the 

 Organization of American States, are urged to greatly strengtiien their staffs 



