Children older than twelve weeks have souls and sort as True Neutral.

They can't get out of the Boneyard - the True Neutral afterlife - until they've, well, done at least a few things that give them an alignment?  They can leave right after that, but their alignment doesn't always match that of their parents, and... there isn't, often, a way to know which child's soul is which, they're not exactly labeled...

Reducing child mortality, however, is not necessarily going to be a great idea, unless they can also increase agricultural productivity and... also have some sort of solution for a lot of women having fewer babies than currently?  Even in Cheliax that's not... really the sort of thing where you can just ask and be obeyed about it, people like having sex.

This is getting into matters of state, but even Iker has some idea of the chaos and disaster that would result if twice as many children were suddenly surviving to maturity inside Cheliax and farming yields were the same.

Children older than twelve weeks have souls and sort as True Neutral.

They can't get out of the Boneyard - the True Neutral afterlife - until they've, well, done at least a few things that give them an alignment?  They can leave right after that, but their alignment doesn't always match that of their parents, and... there isn't, often, a way to know which child's soul is which, they're not exactly labeled...

Reducing child mortality, however, is not necessarily going to be a great idea, unless they can also increase agricultural productivity and... also have some sort of solution for a lot of women having fewer babies than currently?  Even in Cheliax that's not... really the sort of thing where you can just ask and be obeyed about it, people like having sex.

This is getting into matters of state, but even Iker has some idea of the chaos and disaster that would result if twice as many children were suddenly surviving to maturity inside Cheliax and farming yields were the same.  Everywhere else in Golarion it would be much worse.

Babies older than twelve weeks have souls and sort as True Neutral.

They can't get out of the Boneyard - the True Neutral afterlife - until they've, well, done at least a few things that give them an alignment?  They can leave right after that, but their alignment doesn't always match that of their parents, and... there isn't, often, a way to know which child's soul is which, they're not exactly labeled...

Reducing child mortality, however, is not necessarily going to be a great idea, unless they can also increase agricultural productivity and... also have some sort of solution for a lot of women having fewer babies than currently?  Even in Cheliax that's not... really the sort of thing where you can just ask and be obeyed about it, people like having sex.

This is getting into matters of state, but even Iker has some idea of the chaos and disaster that would result if twice as many children were suddenly surviving to maturity inside Cheliax and farming yields were the same.  Everywhere else in Golarion it would be much worse.

Fetuses older than twelve weeks have souls and sort as True Neutral.

They can't get out of the Boneyard - the True Neutral afterlife - until they've, well, done at least a few things that give them an alignment?  They can leave right after that, but their alignment doesn't always match that of their parents, and... there isn't, often, a way to know which child's soul is which, they're not exactly labeled...

Reducing child mortality, however, is not necessarily going to be a great idea, unless they can also increase agricultural productivity and... also have some sort of solution for a lot of women having fewer babies than currently?  Even in Cheliax that's not... really the sort of thing where you can just ask and be obeyed about it, people like having sex.

This is getting into matters of state, but even Iker has some idea of the chaos and disaster that would result if twice as many children were suddenly surviving to maturity inside Cheliax and farming yields were the same.  Everywhere else in Golarion it would be much worse.

Fetuses older than twelve weeks have souls and sort as True Neutral.

If a soul dies that young, it can't get out of the Boneyard - the True Neutral afterlife - until they've, well, done at least a few things that give them an alignment?  They can leave right after that, but their alignment doesn't always match that of their parents, and... there isn't, often, a way to know which child's soul is which, they're not exactly labeled...

Obviously one tries to reduce child mortality of children too young to remember who their parents are, or which afterlife they should be trying to head for.  This isn't however the sort of place where you can throw effort blindly; the main thing that kills children, young and old, is not enough food and medical interventions without agricultural interventions probably just result in more starvation.  Also helpful might be some sort of solution for women having fewer babies than currently, if more of them are surviving all the way to adulthood.  Even in Cheliax that's not... really the sort of thing where you can just ask and be obeyed about it, people like having sex.

This is getting into matters of state, but even Iker has some idea of the chaos and disaster that would result inside Cheliax if suddenly more children were surviving all the way to adulthood, and farming yields were the same.  Everywhere else in Golarion it would be much worse.  The obvious order in which to improve things - he thinks, he's not a logistics-expert - is farming first, if Merrin knows anything about farming at all.