Abortion: The Malthusian Limit In China

With China being formidable of their nation, not having enough resources to support its vast and rapidly increasing population. Officials implemented an extensive population control program that the Communist Party introduced in 1980 as the One-Child policy. Chinese government law that avoids families from having another child. Those only of the Han Chinese ethnic group that make up 90% of the Chinese population are to be fined, and punished with forced sterilization and abortions. While some see the One-Child policy as making their lives easier and are even rewarded with a “Certificate of Honor.” Correspondingly I see it as assault and clearly violates human rights to the families to not let them enjoy the natural phenomenon of human birth.

While the United States and China are aware of the importance of family, both countries look at the issue completely different. China’s reluctance to lift the number of children a woman can have is a growing concern that continues to affect China. The refusal to lift the ban will affect China’s economy and country as a whole for decades to come. In the United States, issues surrounding the concept of family are arising, especially in the upcoming Presidential election where abortion is one of the main concerns. The public is continuing to raise concerns surrounding the abortion laws, viewing abortions as a moral decision and what constitutes the killing of an innocent life.

“In order to stabilize the world’s population,” wrote Jacques Yves Cousteau “350,000 must be eliminated per day.” This powerfully haunting statement has been regulated and reinforced in China, by their government, since 1979. Although Chinese officials don’t eradicate nearly even a quarter as many lives daily, their One Child Law does put a reasonable dent into the lives that are brought into the world we live in. China’s law, as cold and cruel as it may seem to some, does serve a definitive purpose; to control their population.

China’s population law was instituted in 1979 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. This law limited families to one child. One reason why China created this law is because they were afraid that rising numbers in the population would result in another famine. Recently in 2015 the law was changed to allow families to have up to two children. Even with this relaxation in the law, this law has created a great deal of controversy. China’s population law should be abolished because the population infringes on freedom of citizens”Hidden “ population might turn into crime, The population law requires citizens to against their own consciences,The population harming the economy.

The ability to procreate is something that couples have. The couples must decide whether they want to use that ability or if they want to let it go unutilized. Some countries with population problems have put limitations on couples’ ability to procreate. One of the countries that is most known for this is China with its one child policy. This policy was used to try to slow the population growth that China was experiencing. An alternative to China’s one child policy was discussed in Michael Sandel’s book, What Money Can’t Buy. Tradable procreation permits were talked about to show an alternative way to control population growth as was being done in China. In China’s one child policy each couple was granted the right to have one child and if they had another there would be large fines and consequences they would have to undergo. With tradable procreation permits each woman would receive a certificate

Even before a book becomes a book, they are words first. Many societies believe in masculine and feminine words and symbols. The Chinese society also portrays women as being negative. For well over thousands of years, females have held a lower status in Chinese households and society, you can see this in their writings and laws. The China’s One-child policy is a population control policy which prevented 400 million births, since the 1980’s. Yet the policy has numerous flaws that make the policy bias towards women. In 2007, China received criticize when they allowed more than half of the China’s population to have another child if their first one was a female. The biggest criticize China has received was the abolition rate from parents, who

The One-Child Policy is a policy created in 1979, as an effort to reduce the population during a time when the Chinese population growth was increasing rapidly, needed a solution to decrease the population, and this policy would specifically mandate that all the Chinese couples would only be allowed to have one child. Since the policy was introduced and implemented, it created social issues in China, which were not anticipated when in the creation process. This policy has created a gender imbalance in favor of men from a deep-rooted culture preference of having a son. Chinese culture has a son preference for several reasons consisting of a labor incentive, religious rituals, property inheritance, and old-age security-related. Following the

“A greater population means greater manpower” (Mao qtd. in Fitzpatrick). Mao highlights the importance of childbearing during his infamous reign over the Communist Party in China. The Great Leap Forward in 1958 was Mao’s plan to make China great again. However, his plan leads the country in turmoil because a famine fell upon the country due to overpopulation and citizens were dying daily in the countryside. His encouraging quote, “Of all things in the world, people are the most precious,” became a meaningless statement when China’s One-Child Policy was implemented in 1980 to control the population (Mao qtd. in Fitzpatrick).

Western sources concerning female infanticide begin in 1579, with the arrival in China of the first European missionaries. They brought them a wholly different perspective on infanticide from that of the chinese, one shaped by Christian doctrine; “shaped by thousands of images of the Madonna and child, infanticide inspired horror in European eye when it was encountered in China.” (Mungello, 2008) A flood of morbid reports detailing the furtively condoned practice was generated by these new arrivals; reports of babies thrown into rivers, buried in refuce piles, suffocated, and starved.

“Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women...Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent ”(Last). In China, over the past thirty years, gendercide, resulting from the one child policy, along with other factors,caused the deaths of millions girls, until 2014 when the policy was abolished. Gendercide, has left China with an unbalanced gender population favoring males. Rather than instituting a single gender policy, the population could have been managed with financial incentives

Whereas our world is already experiencing an overpopulation problem, they need more kids for future labor given that an aging population could jeopardize china's economic ascent. Since 1979 the people of China have lived by a policy only allowing one child per family known as, the one child policy. As of 2013 and on they have eased this policy out. This stems from the fact that China’s population is aging and this means there will not be many young people left to continue building the economy.

     China had solved one of their population problems, but had unknowingly created another problem from it. Back in 1976, China faced an overpopulation problem. The growth of Chinas population brought a lot of problems to the country and to its people. Some of the problems were from overcrowding and not enough resources like food and jobs to go around for everyone. This was why the government of China enacted the One-Child Policy act in order to prevent over population. The One-Child Policy was a law that allowed a family to only have one child with the incentive of economic and educational advantages to the family that obeyed this law, in many cases disobeying the law would result in a fine.

In 1980 China announced a one child policy It basically means you can only have one child. If you were to break that policy you would be punished. Many woman have been sterilized or have had to pay a big fine because they have broken the policy. Was it worth it? I believe it may have helped a little since the population was so high but i don't think it was completely worth it. I think there were good and bad things about it like population control and it may have helped fertility reduction but it may also cause mental issues.

It’s shared knowledge that China had implemented the one child policy for decades. So being the second child of my family and has a four-year-older sister make me unique from my peers. The knowledge of how to get along well with a sibling is my personal knowledge which helps me to be more caring and thoughtful. Although I might be less independent than my friends as I often rely on my sister, I am very glad and lucky to have a sister who I can always share my joy and sorrow with.

China’s population growth began to increase during the Ming Dynasty, and increased dramatically throughout Qing. The population grew around 65million in the late 14th century to more than 400 million in 1949 (Spengler 1962: 112). Since the People Republic of China was founded, Mao had seen the population growth as favorable to industrialization, and he believed that population growth empowered the country (Potts 2006). In the 1950s, the government began to realize that the food supply would soon become insufficient for the rapidly growing population, and stopped encouraging people to have more children through propaganda posters. In the beginning of the 1970s, the government launched the “Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign.