Rock Calls for More Birth Control, Says Overcrowding Creates Stress

John Rock '15, Clinical Professor of Gynecology, Emeritus, called last night for greater use of birth control techniques to halt the rapid increase in the world's population. Rock, a prominent Roman Catholic layman, wrote The Time Has Come, in which he urged the Church to reinstate its stand on birth control.

Speaking at Kirkland House, he claimed that the world's population is rising exponentially and that there will soon be six billion human beings. He said that half the people in the world today are undernourished and that food production techniques cannot be developed quickly enough to keep pace with the population.

Food, however, is only one problem as Rock sees it. "Theoretically," he said, "there is no reason that we can't feed billions more." A second problem is that "crowding creates stress and stress creates disorganization of individuals."

"We see an illustration of this around Harvard Square sometimes," he continued. "Enormous numbers of people get together, rub elbows--and stage a panty raid. The stress forces them to do something irrational."

"Continence is not the answer to the problem," Rock asserted. He claimed that "intercourse is one of the greatest aids to civilization because it is the one thing that holds together the family unit, which is so necessary as the basic unit in human society."

He said that greater use of contraception techniques is the only acceptable way to halt population growth. "Speaking as a biologist," he said, "I see no reason not to keep the egg and the sperm separate. They are not human; they have no dignity."