Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lurquer 2666 days ago
Should a government have the power to dictate how many children we have? That does not seem abhorrent to you?

Strange days when one is downvoted for criticizing China's immoral and brutal policy that violated the most basic of human rights.

2 comments

The One-Child policy isn't a hard policy wherein you are punished physically or imprisoned for having more than one child, it's a fine, albeit quite heavy, hence why the average number of children in China in 2016 is 1.62 which exceeds 1 child per family because half of Chinese parents had around 2 children during the One-Child Policy.

The reason why you're being downvoted is because the One-Child policy is actually quite popular in China. A Pew Global survey in 2008 found 76% of Chinese approve of the One-Child Policy (Scroll to Additional Findings section in link cited).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

http://www.pewglobal.org/2008/07/22/the-chinese-celebrate-th...

> The One-Child policy isn't a hard policy wherein you are punished physically or imprisoned for having more than one child, it's a fine, [...]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#Mandatory_con...

> As part of the policy, women were required to have a contraceptive intrauterine device (IUD) surgically installed after having a first child, and to be sterilized by tubal ligation after having a second child. From 1980 to 2014, 324 million Chinese women were fitted with IUDs in this way and 108 million were sterilized. Women who refused these procedures – which many resented – could lose their government employment and their children could lose access to education or health services. The IUDs installed in this way were modified such that they could not be removed manually, but only through surgery.

Thanks for the response.

It would certainly be sloppy logic to merge the statistical information with the poll data. Nevertheless, doing so reveals something not very surprising and illustrative of human nature: you can always find a majority in favor of imposing a draconian restriction on "everyone else." :)

Are doing ignoring what I wrote on purpose?

The issue is personal rights vs. general good.

In the end an individual's liberty ends when his actions are having a serious negative impact on the community.