Chinas One Child One Family Policy
... INTRODUCTION The explosive opposition to Chinas one-child policy act has been supported by incidents of inhumane proportions. Given the fact that large families are representative of Chinas inherent history, imposing restrictions that allow only one child per family --otherwise leaving the parents to face fines, taxes and the absence of governmental support -- has been looked upon as barbarous for such a developed nation. Issues of hostility toward women and the overwhelming statistical evidence of abortion-related medical concerns have turned what once might have been a reasonably good idea into one that carries with it significant drawbacks with regard to human life. ... Wong, a recently married couple, had dreamt of a large family ever since they began planning their future together, but they were particularly desirous of a baby girl as the first addition. When it came time to actually create that family, they knew that if they did no abide by the birth control laws of their land, they would find themselves in a great deal of trouble; after all, China already had far too many people to support on the relatively small plot of land upon which the nation stood. They did not want to give up their dream of one day having a big family, but they knew that the option was not theirs at the present time. ... The Wongs were in a quandary without much hope to raise the family they always wanted. ... 12) over the past decades, but Chinas per capita income has experienced a monumental augmentation -- from 235 yuan back in the early 1970s to twenty-two hundred in 1995 -- that has yielded its people a much more advantageous existence (Wang, 1995). However, along with the good there is always room for bad, which, in this case, includes the obvious hostility towards women, enforcing the one-child-per-family law, as well as other policies that critics have looked upon as stripping Chinas people of their inherent human rights. When it was discovered that China represented twenty-one point four percent of the worlds population on only seven point one percent of the arable land, the time had finally come to curtail the out-of-control procreation that was taking place. ... Families that choose to have more than one child face penalties for each additional baby (Anonymous, 2002), including paying extra taxes and receiving no benefits or subsidized education; women are the victims of hostility insofar as they are forced to abort female fetuses and endure considerable amounts of pain in the process; and the senseless death by drowning and other means for those who bear female children by parents who are terrified of government retaliation.