China's Epidemic China's population reaches over 1.2 billion people, which makes up one-fifth of the world’s total population. In retrospect, China’s land mass is similar to that of the United States, but China has 4.5 times more people. However it is no surprise that overpopulation has become a concern for the Chinese government. Due to the rapid population growth, the economy began dwindling causing the poverty level to rise. This, unfortunately, left a plethora of people unemployed. Realizing these issues needed to be fixed, the government took immediate action. Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China, implemented the One Child Policy in 1979. The consequences of this decision was long yet to be discovered. However, though it helped slow the population growth, other problems started to arise. Consequently, the country ended up with over thousands of brutal abortions. The roots of this issue date back hundreds of years, and is still considered a contemporary issuet today. Regardless of what country, what year, what race or gender; people have always held strong feelings about this idea of contraception. Abortion is a form of birth control that is widely known and used. It is a contemporary issue that is notorious for causing grave debates. The conception of birth control is the main perpetrator of China’s abortion epidemic. As birth control laws were being enacted, women were involuntary forced to abort their child in order to sustain normal population numbers. This massive abortion epidemic flooded China as leaders forced one-child policies on the citizens and completely changed the people’s outlook on birth control. This idea of a one-child policy took away many of the peoples freedoms, allowing the government to have one hand ... ... middle of paper ... ... S. Friedman. Greenhaven Press: Cengage Learning, 2009. 7) Richards, Lucinda. “Controlling China’s Baby Boom.” Contemporary Review Jan. 1996: 5-9. Wilson Select Plus. 8) Rubin, R. Eva, ed. The Abortion Controversy: A Documentary History. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. 9) Saad, Lydia. “Abortion Views Reviewed as Alito Vote Nears.” Gallup Poll News Service. 20 Jan. 2006. 22 Feb. 20014. 10) Smith, Bonnie G., ed. Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Vol. 4. N.p.: Xford UP, 2008. Print. 2710 Pages. 11) Wolf, Arthur P. and Theo Engelen. “Fertility and Fertility Control in Pre-Revolutionary China.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 38 (2008): 345-375. Accessed march 20, 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewersid=89e0e1be-a407-4ae1- 9e25f4f0bc853eb7%40sessionmgr110&vid=4&hid=19.
Works Cited Warren, Mary Anne. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion. Trans. Array Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology. . 2 nd.
The one-child policy has caused many more issues than it has solved. The restrictions people must follow are causing a lot of the problems. One of the issues is that China will not relax the policy (Olesen 1). By limiting urban families to one child in a family, China is trying to conserve their natural resources and control the population (Olesen 1). The policy has prevented over 400 million births (MacLeod 1). Before conceiving, parents must obtain a birth permit from the government. Under the permit, married couples are allowed to have one child. If they want to have another one, they must apply for permission and must meet certain regulations and conditions (Dewey 4). In China, families who have more than one child are frowned upon. They pay higher tuition, higher daycare fees, higher tax penalties and are faced with discrimination (Dewey 5). Banners hung all around China’s countryside read, “Give birth to fewer babies, plant more trees” and “If you give birth to extra children, your family will be ruined” (Demick 2). Parents who give birth to more children could also be charged a compensation fee for every kid. On the other hand, families who follow the one-child policy are given preferential treatment for jobs, housing and maternity leaves (Dewey 5). There are many regulatio...
"Abortion." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
In the late 20th century, the one child policy was established, and still continues today, although it is slightly altered. In the first twenty years of the one child policy, China’s population went from 1.3 billion to 300 million, which is why the policy has changed. Today, the one child policy has changed; depending on the couple, if one or both of the parents is a single child, they may have a second child. The one child policy had started due to the overp...
Following a thirty five year policy which was geared towards improving economic and social concerns within the region, the Peoples Republic of China has begun to facilitate its family planning regulations. Prior to the establishment of China’s population policy, the population experienced massive increases and decreases of its magnitude. Consequences of civil and global wars before 1949 led to high death rates in the country. As country conflict came to an end, and new leadership, population growth was greatly encouraged by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. During this time, the size of Chinas population grew subs...
Jost, Kenneth, and Kathy Koch. "Abortion Showdowns." CQ Researcher 22 Sept. 2006: 769-92. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.
The One-Child policy, one of China’s many controversial acts is said to have prevented 400 million births and substantially slow the country’s rapid population growth. The population has grown from just under 600 million in 1950 to over 1.2 billion in 2000. The policy created to decrease the over all population of the country preventing famine and other obstacles has had several unforeseen consequences. For one the policy has produced an aging country with young people a rarity. The one child policy has limited the number of young people coming into the work force, and with modern medicine the life expectancy was 73.49 as of 2011. This caused the amount of elderly to increase and the young population to be limited. Another rising problem is the population gap between male and female children. Traditionally male children are favored over females. Parents will go to far lengths to get a male child, even if it means aborting or abandoning their first if it were to be a girl .Several Chinese suffer from the extreme disciplinary act the government takes on offenders. These include extreme taxation, forced abortion, and sterilization with out consent of the woman in question. The origins of the one child policy are complex and stretch over more than one presidential rein. The one child policy is usually thought to be an infringement of citizen’s rights, but couldn’t it be also interpreted as the Chinese government simply fulfilling its responsibility to keep the country prosperous?
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In China, there was a One-Child policy fully put in place in 1980 to help press a brake on the growing populace (History1). Though this policy was recently tweaked, there is still currently a child limit policy in China based off of the One-Child policy. In placing limits on the amount of children a woman can have, China tells that, “Authorities claim that the policy has prevented more than 250 million births between 1980 and 2000, and 400 million births from about 1979 to 2011”(One1). By preventing all of these births, the population of the world was not affected as greatly by a baby boom like it would have been if these pregnancies had been carried
Matthews, Freddie. “The One Child Policy’s Impact on the Total Fertility Rate in China”. Wordpress.com. 13 April 2012. Web. 25 March 2014. .
I believe China has a serious fertility decline issue that resulted in the failure to transition their aging demographics. This issue stems from their country 's three decades’ belief that overpopulation is the root of all problems because it taxes natural resources and the economy. In fact, many economists and demographers alike will agree. Ironically, their issue isn’t how fast the population is reproducing, the problem is under population and their inability to replace their aging workforce. The reason that China is facing this struggle is at one time, China had the fastest population growth on earth. To combat this problem, China implemented a one child per a family policy because the Chinese government was concerned about the impact of