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... f this program was an increase in infanticide. Female babies were most at risk because of the desire for a male heir to carry on the ancestor line placed a great value on male children. In 1984, China's birth rate was down to the replacement level of 2. 1 births per woman. By 1986, China's growth rate had fallen to 1 % which is far below the 2. 4 % growth rate that many less developed countries were reporting. China's birth rate stood at 18 per 1000, its population was projected to be 1. 2 billion people by the year 2000.
However, in 1987 the birth rate jumped to 21 per 1000 with a population growth rate of 1. 4 %. Controls had been relaxed and the age of marriage was changed. China still has a large population of people of childbearing age, in 1990 there were 270 million women of reproductive age. If each woman has two children, then more than a half a billion people will join the population. China has been able to reduce infant mortality to 44 per 1000 live births, illiteracy to a third of its adult population, and the majority of its children are enrolled in school.
The official census of July 1990 for mainland China recorded a population of 1. 134 billion people. In 1994 Cai Wenmai, a leading Chinese demographer, dismissed the possibility of large-scale female infanticide, although numerous reports have surfaced in the Chinese press of female infants being killed. 2 A country stretched to the limits to provide for a expanding population, the Chinese government has been forced to maintain strick population controls. The Chinese culture has long practiced an intense ancestor worship which is tied to their religious beliefs, this had created a preference for male heirs. The Chinese people consider a male child a great joy and a female child a small happiness; a male can carry on the ancestral line and will provide for the family. A female child seen as burden and drain to family resouces, which will eventually benefit some other family when she marries, rather than her own. In 1994 Americans adopted 800 children from Chinese orphanages, and in 1995 the number doubled according to the Adoptive Families of America.
Over the last decade, Chinese policy on foreign adoptions have oscillated between being illegal and being government organized. According to the AFA, Chinese orphanages are about 99 percent girls. AFA also reports the majority of foreign adoption agencies that work with China are reputable and reliable. An adoption in China may cost anywhere from $ 12, 000 to $ 18, 000 US dollars, including travel. 3 In 1996 Human Rights Watch-Asia alleged abuse in Chinas orphanages, children admitted to Chinese orphanages have only a 50 percent chance of making it through their first year there, as workers systematically state them to death or kill them through neglect and abuse. 4 In light of the poor conditions provided by the government the is a great need for outside sources to provide alternate care for these abandoned children.
While the Buddhist monastics have provided care for a small portion of abandoned children, there has not been an significant organized effort to address the ever growing problem. Today in China, a baby girl may still be cause for disappointment or infanticide. The increase in the sex ratio that characterizes the birth charts suggests they experienced higher female than male mortality, contrary to the usual greater viability of females. According to the 1982 Census, China had an overall sex ration of 105. 5, the age group of 0 - 4 had an excess of males with a sex ration of 107. 2. 5 Although female infanticide has been common in some parts of China in difficult times, there is no evidence that the Chinese ever tried to limit the number of sons they raised. 6 Under the one child policy, Chinese parents prefer to have a son who can support them in their old age and carry on the family lineage. In 1982, the national newspaper China Youth Daily reported that it had received a number of letters citing cases of abandoned baby girls. 7 The desire for boys is so great in the single-child family that it has led to an unforeseen increase in female infanticide. While the government tries to alleviate the problem by allowing foreign adoption, the religious establishment has failed to take an active role in solving the problem or discouraging the practice.
The failure to address the problem of female infanticide is indeed a sad and shameful comment on China's development ethos. The Chinese population continues to exhibit an imbalance in the number of males and females despite more liberated government policies in recent years in China in favor of moderate womens rights. The epidemic of female infanticide attests to the low value upon being female and demonstrates the necessity to implement policies that will serve to upgrade the status of daughters as equal to sons. Collins, Steven. Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Croll, Elisabeth. Chinese Women Since Mao. New York: M. E. Sharp, Inc. , 1983.
Fitzsimmons, Barbara. Russia and China welcome Americans who arent able to adopt U. S. -born children. The San Diego Union-Tribune 25 June 1995: A- 1. Florida, R. E. "Buddhism and the Four Principles." In Principles of Health Care Ethics, ed.
R. Gillon and A. Lloyd, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1994. Fu, Charlene L... Most of Chinas orphans doomed, right group says. The San Diego Goldstein, Sidney.
Urbanization in China: new insights from the 1982 Census. Honolulu: East-West Population Institute, 1985. Hanley, Susan B. and Wolf, Arthur P. Family and Population in East Asian History. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1985.
Kalupahana, David. Ethics in Early Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, Ling, T. "Buddhist Factors in Population Growth and Control, " Population Studies Ling, T. "Buddhist Values and Development Problems: A Case Study of Sri Lanka, " World Miller, Matt. Harsh China Policy Works. The San Diego Union-Tribune: 29 August Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY Collins, Steven.
Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Croll, Elisabeth. Chinese Women Since Mao.
New York: M. E. Sharp, Inc. , 1983. Fitzsimmons, Barbara. Russia and China welcome Americans who arent able to adopt U. S. -born children.
The San Diego Union-Tribune 25 June 1995: A- 1. Florida, R. E. "Buddhism and the Four Principles." In Principles of Health Care Ethics, ed. R.
Gillon and A. Lloyd, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1994. Fu, Charlene L... Most of Chinas orphans doomed, right group says.
The San Diego Union-Tribune 7 January 1996: A- 1. Goldstein, Sidney. Urbanization in China: new insights from the 1982 Census. Honolulu: East-West Population Institute, 1985.
Hanley, Susan B. and Wolf, Arthur P. Family and Population in East Asian History. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1985. Kalupahana, David.
Ethics in Early Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. Ling, T. "Buddhist Factors in Population Growth and Control, " Population Studies 23: 53 - 60. 1969 Ling, T. "Buddhist Values and Development Problems: A Case Study of Sri Lanka, " World Development 8: 577 - 586. 1980 Miller, Matt. Harsh China Policy Works. The San Diego Union-Tribune: 29 August 1994: A- 4
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