Pronatalism – the belief that low birth rates are a problem that must be reversed – is having a moment in the U.S.^[1]

As birth rates decline^[2] in the U.S. and throughout the world, voices from Silicon Valley^[3] to the White House are raising concerns about what they say could be the calamitous effects of steep population decline^[4] on the economy. The Trump administration has said it is seeking ideas on how to...

I saw it firsthand after my cat Murphy died earlier this year. She’d been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before.

She was a small gray tabby with delicate paws who, even during chemotherapy, climbed her favorite dresser perch – Mount Murphy – with steady determination.

The day after she died, a colleague said with a shrug: “It’s just part of life.”

That phrase stayed with me – not because it was wrong, but...