Originally Posted by
Gord_in_Toronto
I seem to remember a science fiction story from some years ago in which babies started to be born without minds/brains. The x-planation was that there was a finite number of souls and the Universe had run out (some number were normally in the buffer in Heaven but it was exhausted).
I've read that one. The protagonist (a Buddhist IIRC) decides to commit suicide so that one less child will be born mindless.
I've also read a story where someone investigating why life expectancy appears to be dropping finally works out that every time the world's population exceeds a certain number the oldest person alive drops dead, apparently to free a soul for the next baby to be born. Can't remember the title or author of that one either.