China considering changes to its one-child policy

Earlier this year, debate over the country’s strict family planning rules erupted after a woman in the northwestern province of Shaanxi was forced by officials to abort her seven-month pregnancy.

JT this requires a rewrite to:" officials killed her soon to be born child". It is outrageous that none of those officials are yet in prison.

I'm all for getting rid of this law... it does more harm than good, and of course eventually it'll lead to a rapidly aging society. The saddest part of the law is that it leads to abortions and/or downright murder if the one child is not the gender the parents would prefer. As for rural vs. urban, while many of the former end up moving to the latter at some point, rural families in general should be permitted more than one child because more than one child is necessary to work the land and provide for said urban centers.

The next question that arises is how this poor planet can come up with the resources to sustain 2 billion Chinese...

Smith - "I'm all for getting rid of this law... it does more harm than good, and of course eventually it'll lead to a rapidly aging society."

I usally agree with you, but not on this one.

There's already far too many people for the planet's eco systems to support. I can't see how encouraging more births is going to help anything.

Sure, it will - at some stage - increase tax revenues, but at what cost?

Exhausted water supplies (western and northern China are already seeing underground aquifiers running dangerously low, and Beijing is also at risk of serious water shortages in the near future)

- Increased pollution. The planet is a closed system. More people creates more pollution, which slowy but steadily backfires and makes us sick and kills us as it drains, leeches and fills out soil, water supplies and air.

Overpopulation is slowly but steadily killing us. Loosening regulations to make it easier to increase the population will simply hasten the decline.

Virtuoso - exactly.

Governments - in my view - generally view citizens as sources of taxes.

The larger the pool of relatively healthy working age citizens, the "better".

For taxes yes, for long-term sustainability, it's the complete opposite.

We all need to downsize not just our environmental footprints but also our family sizes.

Hope india will ignore this move and will not fight for 1st position.

The next question that arises is how this poor planet can come up with the resources to sustain 2 billion Chinese...

india has never had a 1 child policy. it'll reach the 2 billion mark way before china does.

i'm curious as to why people who argue against china abandoning the current 1 child policy, yet never argue for india instituting one?

Oh I can answer that. In India there is a lot of sacred cows -who by the way, eat enough to feed seven people. If the argument about population arose, the alternate argument about cows, would undoubtedly arise. As for over population get your facts straight. If every person had 1000square feet each, it would take up the states of Nebraska and Kansas, plus another 9mile strip. Okay given that those stats are somewhat old, just double it, or triple it. It still isnt the whole of America!! So get your facts straight.

So I say GO CHINA!!! Completely stash that policy, shove it on the top of the rubbish pile and fill the world with lots of little Chinese children(well give it a try).