As a child, I enjoyed reading the Shadow Children series of novels. The seven books describe a dystopian United States where it is illegal for families to have more than two children. If they do, the third child is executed by the government, along with their family and any accomplices.
Because the book was set in an unlikely future version of the U.S., I never thought such atrocities were possible in the real world. But similar atrocities have been taking place in China for the past 35 years.
Since the late 1970s, most pregnant Chinese women have been forced to have abortions if they already have one child. Women who aren’t complicit in the extermination of their fetuses are physically forced into it, backed by law. Sometimes they are forcibly sterilized.
Hundreds of millions of unborn babies have been aborted. Thankfully, the policy that has done great harm to China and the rest of the world will soon be relaxed by the Communist government, which recently announced that it will soon change to a two-child policy. Progress, but far from ideal.
Prospective parents — not government — should be the ones to decide whether to create life. The decision is intimate and personal, and legal force should not be used to stop someone from bringing life into this world.
We will never know how many great humans were never brought into the world because of China’s one-child policy. The move to legalize two children may allow a disease-curing doctor to be born, or the person who finally brings democracy and truly free markets to China, or a scientist that helps send humans to Mars. With 1.4 billion Chinese today, the reformed child restrictions mean there is great potential that a second child will change the course of humanity.
Of course, regardless of the potential greatness of any one child, every human has inherent dignity. It is government’s job to protect that dignity, not violate it.
Despite all its potential, the reform was not met with enough praise. President Obama did not issue a press release. Nor did the Department of State, although it found time to issue statements about Antigua and Barbuda, Cabo Verde and Micronesia. The American media covered the change, but largely without great applause and ususally without seeming to recognize the gravity of what the change means for human rights.
Toward the end of Among the Hidden, the first book in the Shadow Children series, a group of illegal third children are brutally slaughtered by the U.S. government while rallying for their own rights. It’s a graphic description of what’s been happening in China for years. Human life is too valuable to be treated as a means of production. Many Chinese families will continue to have only one child. Some will have none. But many may wish for more, and they should be allowed to do so free of government coercion.
The end of China’s one-child policy is huge achievement for humanity. Let us hope the still-severe two-child policy also meets its end soon.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
