NationStates Jolt Archive

Last year, the infant mortality rate was 6.63 deaths for every 1,000 births. Do you think that number is too high, and that we need to work to decrease it down to 0?

Obviously, but there is no way the rate could ever be reduced that far without messing with nature to the most extreme degree.

Yeah, we should strive for zero infant mortality but only under one condition. We shouldn't strive for zero infant mortality if it means we must sacrifice money and effort that could be better used to save more lives elsewhere. We will never achieve zero mortality, but it's something to shoot for.

mmm overpopulation tastes like poptarts

Setting a target of zero is unreasonable. Some babies will always be born premature or damaged due to external circumstances (e.g. mother dies in car accident at 7 months pregnant), or with serious conditions such as heart defects. I mean, if all you want is a good stat you could try to pass legislation to force the abortion all pregnancies where tests indicate likely problems - but I don't think you'll get a lot of support for that idea.

That being said, hey even with our lousy, underfunded, socialized health care, Canada's infant mortality rate is almost one third lower than yours (4.82/100,000). And we still have lots of ways to improve our care.

So yes - I think this is clearly an area in which you could improve, and should strive to.

We should work to decrease the rate, but it will never hit zero, there will always be infant deaths, sometimes there are things outside the realm of medicine.

There is a 100% adult mortality rate, I say we work to lower that one.

It's impossible to achieve a 0% infant mortality rate.

Simple - you can't stop the birth of still borns because there will always be a case like that. It's impossible to tell until the child is born. Also, you can't predict if the child will be born prematurely, or....*points up for other reasons*

But, you can always improve things for those who have a chance.

Last year, the infant mortality rate was 6.63 deaths for every 1,000 births. Do you think that number is too high, and that we need to work to decrease it down to 0?
In a perfect world with unlimited funds, sure. But in our crappy resource-limited world it gets progressively more and more difficult the closer you get to zero, and there are other problems like nourishment, degenerative diseases, accident victims, etc. that need that funding.

We should strive to reduce it as much as humanly possible, but realize it will never be zero.

There is a 100% adult mortality rate, I say we work to lower that one.
Speak for yourself, mortal.

I don't see why the infant mortality rate is so all-important. Let's focus on fighting aids, that's a real issue in a lot of countries: it kills the educated, working population; the ones who keep the country going.

Why dont we consider raising the infant mortality rate to like 50% first, then we lower ack to 6% and it will seem like a miracle of miracles.