It seems everyone is talking about how there just aren’t enough babies. The worldwide birth deficit has hit Western nations hard: From the U.S. to Europe, nations have slid below the 2.1 children per woman necessary to keep population stable. But this isn’t just a Western problem. India and China are facing massive birth deficiencies of their own. Between these two countries, there are approximately 140 million fewer women of childbearing age than there are male peers. At the same time, the world is staring down a huge number of elderly people, and many of them are worried about receiving the care they need in their last years. In Japan, elderly women commit minor crimes so they can go to prison, where they enjoy regular meals, decent healthcare, and friendships; meanwhile, in Canada, the elderly face increased pressure to kill themselves.
Nadya Williams’s new book, Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic: Ancient Christianity and the Recovery of Human Dignity, serves as both catalog and guide in this dystopian landscape, exposing just what has brought us to this point. The problem, Williams says, is that contemporary societies value productivity but not human dignity; someone who isn’t productive is, quite simply, not valuable. This means, of course, babies and the elderly, but also the mentally ill, the disabled, the addicted, and even the able-bodied who choose to devote their lives to things that have no economic value—like mothers.
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