Author Description

In 1963, the 23rd American Assembly issued a report calling attention to the rapid population growth in the underdeveloped world and concluded that such growth would asversely affect efforts to improve economic and social conditions in developing countries. The report called for significant and systematic American support for family planning and other population control measures in the Third World. This book is a response to the 1984 UN Conference on Population, which changed US policy and stated that "population growth is, of itself, a neutral phenomenon." The 1986 meeting of the 71st American Assembly brought together distinguished Americans from various sectors of our society to determine where the facts lead in the dispute about the relationship of population growth to economic development. Chapter titles include: 1) The World Demographic Situation, 2) Are the Economic Consequences of Population Growth a Sound Basis for Population Policy?, 3) Population trends and Economic Development, 4) The transition in Reproductive Behavior in the Third World, 5) Intersections: Immigration and Demographic Change and Their Impact on the United States, 6) Family Planning Programs, and 7) Population Policy: Choices for the United States.