To most Westernized countries, the idea of the government controlling the size of your family seems absurd. For Chinese parents, however, this is a reality. The Chinese Policy on Family Planning was first implemented in 1978, and restricts urban couples from having more than one child. The policy was originally instated under economic pretenses, aiming to decrease unemployment caused by an oversaturation of workers. It also aimed to conserve natural resources and provide a stable job rate for workers. Furthermore, Chinese officials hoped the policy would decrease population growth and problems associated with overpopulation such as disease, overcrowding, and decreased quality of life.
A Chinese poster promoting the one-child policy.
"Carry out family planning."
In order to enforce this policy, China imposes fines on families with more than one child. These “social maintenance fines” serve to offset the economic and environmental impact the extra child has on society. Despite this, many Chinese choose to pay this fine and have extra children anyway. In addition to the fine, families with multiple children have to pay for their schooling and the entire family’s healthcare, both of which are normally subsidized by the government. Parents that have multiple children may be discriminated against in other ways; they may get unequal benefits at work or be less likely to earn a promotion or raise.
There are a variety of exceptions to the one-child policy. Families who live in rural areas, parents who do not have any siblings, and minorities can all have more than one child. Likewise, parents whose first child is physically or mentally disabled are allowed to have another child. This again suggests the idea that the disabled are considered less-worthy humans in today’s society, and is another example of the stigma associated with the disabled.
Since the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rates in China have dramatically decreased, from five births per woman in the 1970s to 1.5 in 2011. This decrease in fertility is accompanied by a decrease in the prevalence of females. In Asian society, males are seen as more valuable than females. This originated with the idea that males can do more work on a farm than females, and can also provide more financial stability than females. Because of this, and the pressure from the government to have only one child, many female fetuses are aborted or female infants are abandoned or put up for adoption. The same trend is seen in India, where between 4 million and 12 million females have been aborted since 1980. This disturbing fact illustrates the lack of value Asian culture has for females. The regular abandonment and abortion of females in China can be viewed as a genocide of sorts. Millions of innocent lives are taken or devalued, simply because they are not males. Despite this, the Chinese government says it will not repeal the policy until at least 2015.
U.S.A. stats for 2005, Alan Guttmacher Institute; Australian stats for 2003, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; Canadian stats for 2005, Statistics Canada; China stats from China Daily, 2009; U.K. stats for 2004, U.K. Department of Health (The Epoch Times)
The one-child policy can be seen as encroaching on the human rights of Chinese parents to choose the family size and composition that they want. By promoting phrases like “One is good, two is okay, three is too many,” the Chinese government imposes its idea of the ideal family onto its citizens, forcing them to conform to the rules they deem fit. Limiting child size to one is unfair and unwise, from both a biological and sociological point of view. By decreasing the amount of offspring produced, parents are unable to spread their genes and increase genetic diversity. Having multiple children also ensures that at least one survives to reproductive age, whereas a single child may die early. Moreover once parents reach old age and need to be taken care of, the burden falls upon the single child. This can be taxing to the child both financially and emotionally. Having multiple children would spread the responsibility, leading to greater care for the parents and less stress for the children.
China’s one-child policy has caused a marked decrease in the number of females, and has placed an unnecessary pressure on families to produce males. Rather than creating the family that they want, parents are forced to conform to the government’s strict standards and limit their procreation.
Although the policy has been effective at moderating population levels, there are less restrictive ways to limit growth, such as requiring parents to space out births. Unfortunately, the one-child policy in China will be around in China for at least a few more years, during which time an innumerable number of females will be aborted or abandoned.
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