[Tax-chick]

potential for childbearing is pretty much limited to about ages 15-35 years old for the females

Sigh. If I believed that, I'd have fourteen children when I reached 52.

Although it's not really relevant to population-wide reproductive outcomes, I believe that the "loss," as it were, of around 15 years of fertile time for women is almost entirely the result of lifestyle choices, not nature. In modern industrial societies, we're actually seeing a longer period between menarchy and menopause than has ever previously been observed. If most women can't have a child at 40, it's often because they spent the previous 25 years trashing their reproductive systems.

[Jack Black]

Whether the ability to have kids extends to 35 or 50 is a moot point, because woman who haven't had kids by 35 are unlikely to have theem after that age. (Sure, there is the occassaional exception.)

The facts outlined above remain: most European nations are not reproducing themselves.

Pat Buchanan wrote an excellent book on this a decade ago:

. (Funny, he includes Japan in his category of "the West".)

[Mrs. Don-o]

Exactly. Women who have spent 25 years blocking, sabotaging, and hormonally confusing their their sexual physiology, and then at age 40 change lanes and start into some panicky reproductive project, are likely to have as many kids as Unitarians have Divine Persons: zero, with gusts of up to one.