The Infertility Trap: Why Life Choices Impact Your Fertility and Why We Must Act Now

Reproductive biologist Aitken sounds the alarm for a “crisis of existential proportions” in this oft-shaky study of recent trends in human fertility. Birth rates are falling below replacement levels worldwide, Aitken writes, warning that population decline will strain governments, crater economies, and burden youth with supporting “super-aged” populations. He addresses socioeconomic reasons that people opt to have fewer (or no) children (no time for maternity leave, opting to “become educated and pursue their own career ambitions rather than have a family”), but writes that women in affluent Western societies aren’t “living their reproductive lives as nature intended,” instead using IVF to have children later in life. He’s on much firmer ground discussing human conception, the development of assisted reproductive technology, and environmental causes of infertility, toxic pollution key among them. He calls for “pro-natalist” government policies that “offer financial inducements to get married and have children,” and acknowledges that economic growth can be neither infinite nor depend on “unsustainable resource consumption and harmful pollution,” but fails to paint a clear picture of how to balance population growth, healthy economic activity, and environmental protection. The cri de coeur has potential, but it falters in the details. (May)