Science and Morals 199 



wife to bear children is a cause for divorce. In the Western 

 world, the Biblical injunction to go forth and multiply 

 became incorporated in what we have referred to as the 

 Natural Law of the Church derived from Aristotle's habit 

 of describing nature in terms of its intentions or purposes. 

 The doctrine in this case runs more or less as follows: the 

 obvious purpose of the reproductive instinct is reproduc- 

 tion, the use of this instinct without intending to have chil- 

 dren is therefore unnatural (that is, sinful). This view was 

 universally held in the Western world until very recent 

 times. At present it is identified primarily with the Roman 

 Catholic Church, although orthodox Communists reach 

 the same conclusions through a somewhat different process 

 of reasoning. 



Science has become involved in two ways in the reap- 

 praisal of what might be called the moral value of having 

 children. In the first place, the application of scientific 

 knowledge to agriculture, to industry, and to public health 

 has made it possible for many more children to live to 

 adulthood than used to be the case. In the second place, 

 science has used its analytical abihties to demonstrate that 

 a declining death rate and constant birth rate are sure to 

 result in a rapid increase in population. Along with this 

 increase will come increasing pressure on natural resources, 

 increased contamination of the water we drink and the 

 air we breathe, social and political unrest, and numerous 

 other troubles incompatible with the good society we are 

 struggling to achieve. 



The scientist is quite ready to agree that many of the 

 factors in this discussion involve questions of value which 

 science is not prepared to resolve as such. For example, 

 as a human being, the scientist may prefer a world which 

 has forests and swamps where he can go and be alone on 

 weekends, but he cannot use his science to demonstrate 



