Where There's Hope

"Where There's Hope" by Jerome Bixby is a science fiction story that takes place on the planet of New Earth, in the early 1950s, where colonists from a dying Earth fight to survive. The heart of the story is about whether it's right to have kids when things are unstable. Hugh Farrel, the Chief Medical Officer, finds his decisions challenged by the women of the colony led by Mary Pornsen, because the women fear childbirth from the planet's dangers. The men insist that children are important for the colony's future, however, all the colonists are in less than favorable health due to radiation poisoning from back on Earth as well as their dangerous travels to the planet. To solve the problem, Farrel and other leaders use hypnosis to force couples to have children. Twenty-one years later, the colony has taken hold, but the ethical cost of Farrel's actions are still present, though perhaps ignored.