'Green' Reproduction, Resource Conservation,and Ecological Responsibility

摘要

This paper will draw on Catholic resources to examine the impact of population and consumption vis-a-vis reproduction in the developed world as it relates to theological/ moral obligations to the earth. By examining both natural and artificial means of procreation, an assessment of "green" reproduction can be made. I will explore contraception as an option for limiting natural procreation, and the avoidance of assisted reproductive technologies [ARTs] as a way of preventive artificial reproduction. However, both family size and carbon footprint must be scrutinized for ecologically sound consumer practices in accordance with biblical principles to ensure the global magnitude of the ecological crisis is examined; therefore the role of consumption that stems from procreation will also be discussed. The paper will conclude by envisioning alternative parenting options as they relate to ecological practices, and I will assert that all things considered, on the continuum of ecologically oriented reproductive choices, non-biological parenting and thereby a reduction in procreation and consumerist practices is the most ethical and ecological solution to the environmental crisis that surely escalates with each birth.