One Child Policy Should Be Abolished

One child policy has been in effect in China for more than thirty years. However, during the recent several years, the controversy of whether the government should abolish the one child policy has been debated widely among government officials as well as ordinary people. It is a significant issue because it involves a lot of essential social problems and moral principles. There have been various opinions concerning this issue. This essay will consider arguments for abolishing the one child policy and point out the problems and consequences of keeping the policy in effect. When the one child policy was advanced, it had been argued that one child policy would benefit the country as well as its people (Qing, 1995). Its undeniable that the one child policy has shown its great effect on alleviating the population pressure. However, as the society develops, more and more inharmonious social problems are coming about because of the one child policy, among which the biggest problem is the unbalanced population. By 2020, there will be about 40 million Chinese men unable to marry, because too few girls will have been born. Sociologists say that could trigger aggressive behavior among frustrated bachelors, including kidnapping and trafficking in women. † (VOA, 2006). Moreover, the one child policy is also exacerbating China's aging population problem, whose severe consequences will be further explained in the following statement. It is the contention that china's one child policy helps eradicate poverty (idebate. org). This opinion goes on to assert that by controlling china’s population with one child policy, there will be more resources distributed to every individual, thus the society will be wealthier and poverty will be eliminated. In fact, it is on the contrary that after china’s population has been massively reduced, the one child policy has started doing harm to the economy. The unusually rapid fertility decline in China has produced a rapidly aging population—one that is expected to become disproportionately older well into this century. What’s worse, â€Å"By 2025, the aging level among urban Chinese will reach 20 percent, a level found today only in Japan and Italy. † (idebate. org) As a result, there are and there will be fewer and fewer available labors contribute to China’s economical development. In addition, other social problems related to aging population such as the burden on the social welfare system and medical insurance system are becoming more and more severe. Above all, the one child policy violates basic human right. The policy has been criticized by human rights advocacy groups and Western religious advocacy groups who consider it contrary to the human rights of reproduction. Many governments, including the United State government, argue that the policy violates a right to â€Å"found a family†, which is protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (UDHR, 1948) Indeed, forcing every married couple to have only one child is morally unreasonable. Moreover, it is every couple themselves, not the government, that have the right to choose how many children they are going to have. Thus, although the one child policy’s intention is to create a better society for people, it has already done harm to people’s basic human rights. In conclusion, even though the one child policy has done a good job before on controlling China’s population, it has been proved out-of-date and should be abolished, at least changed, nowadays. Otherwise, we will still be suffering from the economical burdens, aging population problem, human rights violation, etc, due to the one child policy.