Dear Sir
Regarding Dr Macadam’s letter (March 1992 Newsletter). D--- that for a game! I have four children, all with degrees and the youngest has a first. With two children the blood line is extinct in a handful of generations. The ‘purpose’ of living is to survive, in the widest sense, whether one is a bacterium or a man; and at the price of everyone else. I am quite prepared to trample on the starving millions in Africa or Edinburgh to achieve that in spite of the 2.4% annual increase in world population. Why? Because it is genetically built in and I could not face my ancestors. A very strong dynastic sense in a family that for at least half a millennium has also had a strong survival instinct. What’s to be done?
I have noticed that when many people reach a comfortable economic level they will often not want children to threaten their comfort, and become practically barren. Not everyone bothers about blood lines.
If governments aimed for this rather than, like the Chinese, forcing them to have just one spoilt brat, things might improve and I might be bred out!
Patrick F James
Swallowcliffe
Nr Salisbury
Dear Sir
ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION BY DONOR
We should ensure that donors are free from cancers and heart disease, and preferably over 60 years old, sound in wind, mind and limb. Thereby AID children would have better chances of longevity.
Dr Ian Macadam
Edinburgh