The Effects of the One-Child Policy in China
In an attempt to control the escalating population in China, the Chinese government issued a draconian policy in 1979, permitting only one child per family. The One-Child Policy has decreased the population, heightened the number of abandoned children, and has caused couples to murder their baby girls. The population has lessened since the government first put the policy into effect. This regulation caused much higher rates of child abandonment, especially of girls and disabled children. Along with abandonment, couples will murder their daughters either by abortion or infanticide so as to only raise a son, a horrifying phenomenon referred to as gender selection.
Because the policy limits couples to a single child, families want only perfect sons. Sons watch over their own parents, but the in-laws always stand as the daughter’s first priority. When the father falls ill or passes away, his son will assume the responsibilities of the family. A son will also carry on the family name but daughters cannot. Couples also only want children without defects. If a child has any mental or physical handicaps, the Chinese culture believes that the gods have scorned that family line. Parents will do anything to dispose of the “defected” children, no matter what gender. As a result, more girls than boys are found in orphanages, alongside handicapped or disabled children. The One-Child policy has caused all of these children to be abandoned.
Even worse than abandonment, some couples have a gender-selective abortion or commit infanticide, murdering the infant child. With the help of ultrasound systems, families can see if their unborn child is a boy or girl. If pregnant with a girl, some couples might choose to have an abortion. A mother might ask the midwife to kill the baby at the moment of birth if it is a girl if the parents could not use an ultrasound earlier. Consequently, the One-Child Policy has heightened murder rates in China.
This decree has also accomplished one of the few things that the government anticipated when it passed this law: the population has decreased since 1979. During the first twenty years of the policy taking place, the population decreased by three hundred million. Demographers blame the policy for the tremendous gender imbalance. Right now in China, there live 119 men to every 100 women. Many 20-year-old men cannot find women to marry today because 20 years ago, citizens of China either killed or placed countless girls in orphanages, therefore decreasing the population. However, the government worries that human-trafficking of women and children might become more prominent in the poverty-stricken rural provinces as men look to find wives. The One-Child Policy might have lessened the population, but soon, it could bring about human trafficking.
The One-Child Policy in China has produced quite a number of unforeseen social and demographic problems. Couples abandon their children along the side of the road just because they happen to be girls or handicapped. Mothers murder their daughters, for the sake of having a son. The policy has skewed the male-female gender ratio, threatening to launch off the filthy business of human-trafficking. If the government repeals that cruel law, the rates of abandonment could decrease. Parents of girls and handicapped children might also take the initiative to keep and care for their baby if the policy wasn’t forcing them to choose only the best that the couples could get. While the Chinese government had good intentions for the One-Child Policy, it has gotten completely out of hand and needs to come to an end. 
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