Statistics show that an increasing number of married couples in the western world are choosing not to have children. The legacy of the feminist movement has been to allow women to compete on equal terms with their male counterparts in the workplace and the most talented and intelligent females are deciding to succeed in their careers at the expense of procreation.

Meanwhile, women without the natural ability to lead successful careers view childbirth as an effortless route to a comfortable lifestyle. These women choose to give birth to several children, often to different fathers, while being subsidised by the welfare state.

This leads to a dilemma. Humanity's great achievements are the result of many millions of years of evolution, yet mankind has now evolved to a point where it is being threatened by an inversion of the process of natural selection. While the elite of the human race chose to shun the continuation of their genetic line in favour of the false idol of career development, the gene pool is being flooded by the offspring of humanity's most worthless examples.

If allowed to continue unchecked, this situation can only lead to a reversal of the evolutionary process in which each new generation of humanity is successively weaker than its predecessors. The early signs of Armageddon are already evident. The sharp rise in the number of weak, sickly children born with heriditary diseases such as asthma, attention deficit disorder and ginger hair, together with an alarming increase in the number of young offenders are testament to the reality of this problem. Clearly, decisive action is required before mankind becomes extinct.

Fortunately, the scientific breakthrough of in vitro fertilisation may prove to be the saviour in mankind's hour of need. The proposed solution to humanity's plight is both obvious and simple.

Three Point Plan for the Preservation of the Human Race

• Firstly, sperm and ova must be harvested from the finest examples of the human species - individuals who have excelled in science, business, sports or the arts.
  
  
• Meanwhile, compulsory sterilisation must be performed upon those people who do not qualify as exceptional members of the human race in order to prevent further irreversible dilution of the gene pool.
  
  
• Finally, the sterilised women should be impregnated with embryos produced from the donor sperm and ova. While humanity's elite are now freed from the obligations of parenthood and are able to devote their full attention to enriching society, these surrogate mothers get the privilege of contributing to society by raising the next generation of our race. This is clearly a win-win situation.

At first glance, this proposal may seem extreme. However, a similar society exists in nature and has proven to be successful over millions of years. The society in question is, of course, that of the honey bee. In this social hierarchy, only an elite minority are capable of reproduction and the vast majority of bees, the 'worker' bees, are infertile. While the fertile 'drone' and 'queen' bees shoulder the heavy burden of perpetuating the species, the common worker bees are free to enjoy the simple delights of manual labour. Clearly, there are many lessons that human society may learn from that of the humble bumblebee.

Preventing the demise of the human race is obviously a matter of great urgency. However, it is not too late to avert the impending catastrophe. Some enlightened governments are already taking measures to safeguard their nation's gene pool. It is time for the rest of the world's governments to follow suit, to protect the future of the human race.

Part two of this series will investigate how recent advances in biological and electronic technology may be harnessed to accelerate the development of the human species.