China Birth Control the Effects

China Birth Control

The effects of Birth Control in China

Technological developments necessarily have an impact on human societies, though the degree may vary from culture to culture. One technological innovation of the past century that has had a profound impact on many societies around the world has been the development of various birth control devices, including pharmaceuticals and physical barriers. Though certain methods and devices have existed for millennia, it was not until the twentieth century that products were developed with highly effective success rates. This has enabled not only individuals but social groups -- be they small family unites or large national governments -- to implement birth control programs on a much more effective result. This has had dramatic effects in many nations of the world, and perhaps China most extremely.

Population Growth and Fertility Rates

The primary reason for China's implementation of strict birth control policies, beginning in the 1950s and continuing in various forms until the resent day, is to curb the massive growth that the increasingly crowded and still largely impoverished country has experienced (Hsu 1985; Xiaokang 1996). The availability of contraceptives in many areas of the country has made such policies relatively easy to implement on a physical level, especially in urban centers of the nation (Hsu 1985; Peng 2000; Zhang et al. 2009). Increasing participation in government-supplied contraceptive programs has been a key element of the government's success in its birth control efforts, and though the population in China continues to rise in large absolute terms, the growth rate has been diminished (Peng 2000).

There are also benefits of the program that are not directly related to the issue of population growth. The increasing industrialization and modernization of China, at least insofar as its urban areas are concerned, has led to a breakdown of the traditional Chinese family structure, and the economic realities have shifted in a way that favor smaller families rather than the large extended networks and multitude of offspring that traditional Chinese culture and economics makes a practical and ethical imperative (Jacka 2007; Xiaokang 1996). Families with fewer children are also more mobile, and Chinese couples with only the one child the Chinese government will sanction their having are more able to focus efforts and resources towards that child's success in the changing and developing world (Hsu1985). Changing traditions and economies necessarily alter opportune family structures.

Successful contraceptive efforts, which form the backbone of the government-sponsored birth control programs in the country, have also had a major effect on the practice of healthcare in China. Fewer conceptions taking place means that fewer women are forced or choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies, which creates both a direct and an indirect strain on the medical community in certain areas of china (Hsu 1985; Li et al. 2009; Xiaokang 1996). Medical complications arising from improperly performed abortions and self-abortion attempts have been reduced to some degree by government contraception programs, which has led many to see promise in the continuing efforts by the Chinese government to limit China's population growth through these means, especially if further educational efforts and rural availability of contraception is increased (Li et al. 2009).

Criticism

There are, of course, many criticisms that have been leveled against the Chinese government and its birth control program, which includes forced abortions and encourages infanticide (especially of female newborns) (Li et al. 2009; Peng 2000). Better contraceptive outreach efforts and education campaigns have proven enormously effective in some areas of China, and are far cheaper in the long run both economically and ethically to focusing efforts solely on these policies and programs rather than the seeking out and punishment -- through forced termination and other means -- of unsanctioned and illegal pregnancies (Hsu 1985; Li et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2009). Claims of the programs' success in general are also claimed to be highly exaggerated in official reports, which often provide the only numbers available on the subject (Jacka 2007; Xiaokang 1996).

The human rights issues that the programs either directly and explicitly entail or quite predictably and verifiably lead to are the main source of the criticisms directed at China's official birth control policy and programs. Both infanticide and forced abortions are practiced not only by families but also by the Chinese government and various provincial authorities, which is considered a major rights violation by much of the rest of the world (Li et al. 2009; Zhang et al. 2009). The question of whether or not it is ethically permissible for the state to control fertility and conception at all is also still a major debate, though most academics that have truly scrutinized the issue seem to agree that China must have some form of population control or face collapse from within (Jacka 2007; Peng 2000).