China's One Child Policy

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The one child policy was adopted to help improve economic, environment, and population problems in China. The policy was used to limits the number of children that couples can have. When , the law was introduced it was only supposed to help with the overpopulation but , it has caused many children to be left and abandoned. Although China has a population problem, the one child policy was not the right way to handle the situation. There has been a long history of China’s one child policy, since it was first introduces in 1979 by a Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping (Rosenberg n.p). The law was meant to be temporary and used to control the population; however it is still in use today (Rosenberg n.p). When the policy was first enforced, it only allowed one child per family , but it was recently changed to allow couples to have two children but only if either one of the parents is an only child (William n.p). If ,someone were to break the policy their punishment would result in fines. Forced abortions, abandonment, and infanticide are some of the things people are doing so that they do not have to pay these fines. There are many exceptions to this policy. For example a couple can have a second child if the first one is born with defects (Rosenberg n.p.) Also if a family’s first child is a girl in a rural area they are allowed to apply for a second one. If they are allowed to have a second child they must first wait three to four years their first birth. However, the exception does not apply in some ethnic groups (Rosenberg n.p.) The one child policy applies to every person in China except some of the Government officials (one-child policy n. p). Wealthy people can get away with not having to pay fines when they break the policy because t... ... middle of paper ... ...e girls. Abandonment is also a major problem in China. Parents are abandoning their children and being put them orphanages to keep from having to pay fines in China (Background to COCOA). Some of the reasons that people are abandoning their children are if they have a disability or if they already have a child (Background to COCOA). Since more and more children are being either abandoned or put up for adoption it makes finding homes for these children more difficult. There needs to be something done about the population problem but killing children, and making people pay fines for having too many children is terrible. The policy is too cruel and inhumane. Yes, it is helping the population problem but it is forcing people to put their children up for adoption and have abortions. China needs to find a way to fix their problem without taking away people’s rights.

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