Fund mechanistic fertility research

The paper argues that demography, environmental science, reproductive medicine and evolutionary biology must be combined to understand falling human fertility. Rather than treating the decline as only a social or only a medical problem, the author calls for targeted mechanistic studies (exposures, selection, ART feedbacks) to test which pathways are driving the trend. — If adopted, this research agenda would change public responses — shifting some policy focus from short‑term family incentives to pollution control, regulation of novel exposures, and evidence‑based limits or counselling around ART uptake.