Tag Archives: Age

Thursday the Post lamented the fact that India (population 1.2 billion) is growing twice as fast as China (population 1.3 billion), and may soon have by far world’s most in vitro fertilizations, perhaps 600,000 a year (~2% of India births), costing about $2500 each.

The Post reserved its strongest disapproval (between the lines, but still pretty clear) for the fact that many Indian IVF moms are 60 and 70 years old, and so are taking on bigger health risks. Supposedly regulation is needed to keep such women from succumbing to “cultural pressures.” Apparently, since Post reporters know no colleagues who would consider taking such an action, they conclude that elderly Indian IVF moms must be suffering from some horrible patriarchy. (No further evidence of illicit pressure is given.)

This seems to me cultural arrogance of the worst sort. Yes, new people induce some negative externalities, such as congestion. But overall economists’ best estimate is that new people give others a net benefit, especially via increased innovation. Thus creating (and raising) a new person is an incredibly altruistic act. The new person gets to have a life, and the rest of the world gains as well.

Yes, creating more people may reduce per-capita wealth in the short run, but if [most] everyone benefits, what’s wrong with that?  Yes, a high enough mom health risk could make this a net bad deal. But the Post quotes a 60% baby success rate, and I’ll bet mom mortality is below 6%, which means there’s at least a ten to one life gain ratio. And the gain ratio must be far larger in quality-adjusted life years.

These Indian women are not taking advantage of some overly-generous health insurance loophole – they are paying cash from their own pockets to give life to a new person. And they are not acting on some strange perverted desires – they are expressing an extremely basic, ancient, and revered desire, the desire to mother a child. Who are US elites to tell elderly Indians that their altruistic gift is not worth the cost? Shouldn’t we be subsidizing such altruism, instead of discouraging it?

This seems a lot like the phenomena of “Looking Too Good“:

Unselfish members (those who gave much toward the provision of the good but then used little of the good) were also targets for expulsion from the group. … Social comparison tends to induce feelings of inter-personal competition. People feel driven to outdo the group member who is setting the standard. … Removal of this person would eliminate that competitive standard.

If we praised poor elderly Indian IVF moms, that would implicitly criticize rich Western women who refuse to have even one kid even when young and healthy. Rather than raise our altruism standards, we’d rather exclude these women from the group of reasonable altruists. Quotes from that Post article: Continue reading "Rah Old Indian IVF Moms" »