Readers reactions

Last week in The THES ... David Cook explained why he believes couples should have children

Annily Campbell Author of the forthcoming Sterilised Women: Choice and action to Remain Child-free (Cassell)

David Cook's article was a weak attempt to attach a moral justification to a crass argument. Underneath the choice about whether or not to become parents is the pain some people undergo when they discover that they want to but cannot - or do not want to and do. As I show in my study of childfree sterilised women, the opposition, prejudice and downright bad manners experienced by the childless and childfree has its roots in moral beliefs that generally open with the telling phrase "I think they should I" Recent figures from the World Health Organisation demonstrate that, by the age of 45, 88 per cent of women in the world will have had a child, and many of the other 12 per cent will want to: so what is the problem? It seems to me that the only real question here is: "Is it moral to demand that individuals have children they do not want?"

Jane Denholm Deputy secretary, Committee ofScottish Higher Education Principals, Glasgow

The ability to consider the effects of procreation may be one of the features that distinguishes man from other animals, yet we choose not to exercise it. Surely we will have reached a truly civilised state when we all agree that our species should gently die out, leaving the Earth to recover and thrive.