Peace Without Poison

jurists and thus could not have allowed Iran’s president to make a decision of such enormousethical implications as covert population control.Be that as it may, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who became Iran’s Supreme Leader upon AyatollahKhomeini’s death in 1989, and who served as the President of Iran from 1981 to 1989, shutdown the nation’s program of covert sterilization as soon as I communicated with him andshared with him clear evidence of the terrible damage covert methods of sterilization cause tohuman health and how they degrade the genetic and intellectual endowment of our species.To his credit, Ayatollah Khamenei listened and acted without hesitation. I am certain thatAyatollah Khomeini would have acted the same way had he also been privy to my research andadvice. Ultimately, the most we can expect from our leaders is that they listen, care and respond.Iran’s contraceptive prevalence rate indicates that the government has made genuine efforts sincethe mid-1990s to increase contraceptive use so as to eventually replace covert chemicalsterilization. This foresight is now proving to be of great value since I have deprived the UN andtherefore governments of the cover of secrecy they have relied upon in order to covertly sterilizethe populace. Without clear legislation limiting family size, however, contraceptives alone willnot succeed in limiting fertility to replacement level, as China’s experience amply demonstrates.Abortion is illegal in Iran and allowed only to save a woman’s life. Illegal abortions areestimated to reach a rate as high as 0.26 lifetime abortions per Iranian woman, but that is justconjecture.Iran is in stage four of the demographic transition.359 | P a g e