Chapter 4 Unintended Population Growth in the United States by John T. Noonan, Jr. and Cynthia Dunlap School of Law University of California ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are indebted to the suggestions on the housing section by Kenneth F. Phillips, Director of the National Housing and Economic Development Law Project, and on the tax sections by John K. McNulty, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley. COMMISSION ON POPULATION GROWTH AND THE AMERICAN FUTURE; RESEARCH REPORTS, VOLUME VI, ASPECTS OF POPULATION GROWTH POLICY, EDITED BY ROBERT PARKE, JR. AND CHARLES F. WESTOFF Unintended Consequences: Laws Indirectly Affecting ABSTRACT This study focuses on laws indirectly-that is unintentionally-affecting population. These laws are of three kinds-those setting up the central pattern in which procreation may occur, marriage, and reinforcing that pattern; those imposing burdens or giving benefits which, because they are related to the number of children in a family, can be construed as encouraging or discouraging reproduction; and laws stimulating ways of life in which procreation is not of central importance, especially laws promoting higher education and increasing opportunities for women to more attractive and responsible employment. The conclusion of the paper is that the central structure of marriage cannot be significantly affected and while some of the peripheral supporting laws may be changed, they would not dramatically affect population growth; that if children are treated as human persons with rights of their own it is unjust to impose burdens upon them as a means of discouraging reproduction; and that the most promising area in which the law may be fairly changed with consequences for population growth is in the area of higher education and opportunity to work for women. |