Współczesne zagadnienia demograficzne i moralna ocena proponowanych rozwiązań

Abstract

The paper attempts to outline a demographic situation of today’s world together with numerous related issues like economic development, demographic growth, overpopulation, education, family planning, ecosphere, migration etc. The author then reviews the Christian teaching on the subject, both Catholic and Protestant. A special attention is paid to the draft final document of the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development and to the special letter by Pope John Paul II concerning these issues. It is pointed out that the roots of the problem are to be sought in the inequality of the distribution of wealth, in the expoiltation of poor nations by richer ones and in the insufficient education of people. It is not the number of people as such but the number of people not sufficiently educated and socially immature that create the biggest problems. The Catholic teaching on population issues emphasizes that any solutions to the problems must respect the human dignity and the rights of each human being, including of the unbom. So is it to respect the fundamental role of the family in every society. Contraception and abortion - as contrary to the dignity of man - cannot be accepted as means of population control. At the end of the paper two important documents by the German Bishops are presented.