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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-May-07
Chinese peasants use fertility drugs to get around "one-child" policy

Web Log - May, 2007

Chinese peasants use fertility drugs to get around "one-child" policy

How did this family get four kids?

Parents has quintuplets after taking fertility drugs. They gave one child away to a relative because they couldn't afford to raise all five children. <font size=-2>(Source: BBC)</font>

Parents has quintuplets after taking fertility drugs. They gave one child away to a relative because they couldn't afford to raise all five children. (Source: BBC)

The number of families with twins has been skyrocketing in Henan Province in central China, according to a report by the BBC.

The adjoining picture is of a family with four children. The mother took fertility drugs hoping to have twins, and ended up with quintuplets. They gave one child away to a relative because they couldn't afford to raise all five of them.

A Chinese woman is not allowed to get pregnant more than once. Violating this rule is treated harshly by government officials - the family could face a huge fine, or the woman could be sterilized. The intent of the "one-child" policy, since it was adopted in the late 1970s, was to reduce the growth of China's population.

However, the peasants are becoming increasingly angry at having this kind of government control. On May 19, in Bobai, a town in China's southern Guanxi province, there was a large regional rebellion, involving thousands of peasants attacking government officials, overturning cars and setting fire to government buildings. China has tens of thousands of regional riots and demonstrations each year.

The use of fertility drugs is a loophole in China's harsh "one-child" laws. They're widely available in China without a prescription, according to the BBC report, and many women take them in the hope of having multiple births. A woman whose pregnancy leads to multiple births is permitted to keep the children without any fines.

Typical Chinese maternity ward: Five boys (white) and three girls (pink) <font face=Arial size=-2>(Source: CNN)</font>

Typical Chinese maternity ward: Five boys (white) and three girls (pink) (Source: CNN)

China has had plenty of other problems with its one-child policy. A typical maternity ward has many more boys than girls, since many parents want a son who will support them in their old age, rather than a daughter who will marry someone else and move away. Mothers use ultrasound, followed by abortion or infanticide, to guarantee that their one child will be a boy. As a result, there are 130 boys born for every 100 girls in rural areas.

This whole policy is just one more example of how China's society is coming apart at the seams. China has a population so huge, 1.5 billion people, that it can barely be governed anyway. (As a mathematician, I like to joke that 1.5 billion equals infinity, for all practical purposes.) The one-child policy is merely a stopgap measure that can't possible succeed for long, and today it appears to be unraveling completely.

In March, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said that China is "unsteady, unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable." As I wrote in January, 2005, China is becoming increasingly unstable and approaching a civil war, and a resulting world financial and war crisis. (26-May-07) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-May-07 Chinese peasants use fertility drugs to get around "one-child" policy

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 26-May-07
Chinese peasants use fertility drugs to get around "one-child" policy