minute paper 2/5/08

The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate the overpopulation, social and environmental problems of China. The policy is controversial both within and outside China because of the human rights issues it raises; because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented; and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences.

The one-child policy promotes couples having one child in rural and urban areas. The limit has been strongly enforced in urban areas, but the actual implementation varies from location to location. In most rural areas, families are allowed to have two children if the first child is female or disabled. Second children are subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years). Additional children will result in large fines: families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and might be denied bonuses at their workplace. Children born in overseas countries are not counted under the policy if they do not obtain Chinese citizenship. Chinese citizens returning from abroad can have a second child.

These two above captions were found on wikipedia

China's so-called "one-child" policy was officially adopted as law.
The new law is known as the Law on Population and Family Planning, 2002. The previous policy gained its name from the one-child per couple norm that China’s government has encouraged since 1979, although both the old policy and the new law contain limited exceptions to the "one-child" rule. The shift marks an important change in China's approach to population control, as it brings the greater legal force of legislation into an arena that has been fraught with abuse and inconsistently applied features.

I found the above caption above at reproductiverights.org.

I think it's an interesting topic, because here in The U.S. a law like that might sound "ridiculous" given the constitution, human rights etc. However, I feel that this is a very serious issue, and I believe there should be some kind of child limit law. Maybe not as strict, maybe a 2 child maximum. I know it sounds ridiculous but it is obviously one of the driving forces of global warming, there is obviously world hunger issues and we have to take the initial steps and passes legislation which will shape our future. Although ultimately I know that if our population does continue to grow exponentially there will be a natural correction such as natural disasters or outbreaks such as the flu, hunger and drought. We have to undertand that there is a limit to that graph we saw in class today and we have to face it either today (by implementing child limit laws) or wait until we actually hit the limit and let it naturally correct itself.