China's coming one-grandparent policy

No more shall there be in it
 an infant that lives but a few days,
 or an old man who does not fill out his days,
 for the child shall die a hundred years old,
 and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
  – Isaiah 65:20

The mainstream press is finally beginning to warn of the disastrous consequences of China's population control policies. It isn't being reported on CNN, but at least AFP writer Pascale Trouillaud has written an article titled "China's one-child rule turns into a time bomb".

China's one-child policy has prevented almost half a billion births but has turned into a demographic time bomb as the population ages, storing up huge economic and social problems for the country.

Three decades on, demographers, sociologists and economists are warning of a looming crisis as China becomes the only developing country in the world to face growing old before it grows rich.

By 2050, a quarter of China's population will be over 65, the Commission for Population and Family Planning said, compared to just nine percent today.

The upside-down pyramid -- whereby a single child shoulders responsibility for two parents and four grandparents -- is a major headache for the government.

China has barely begun to put in place a universal social security and retirement system, and over two-thirds of the rural population does not have a pension.

The solution is obvious for a country that has already implemented a brutal "one-child policy" -- an equally brutal "one-grandparent policy" would not be beyond the realm of reason.

Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute has been battling to warn the world of the dangers of population control policies for years. I was almost finished writing this article, when it occurred to me to check his site for information on euthanasia in China. I was amazed to find him come to the same conclusion that I had -- even calling it a "one-grandparent policy".

Finally, there is the demographic snare that the one-child policy has set for the Chinese people. Because of the radical cutback in births, the Chinese population is aging faster than any human population in human history. The worker/dependency ratio is unsustainable. How can an only child support two parents and four grandparents in retirement? I am afraid that this will lead the Chinese government to embark upon a “one-grandparent policy” in years to come, in which tens of millions of elderly Chinese will be urged to accept euthanasia, perhaps in return for their only grandchild being allowed to go to college. Forced abortion and forced euthanasia are two sides of the same debased coin.

And as usual there will be a practical equivalent for American society as well. We don't have an official one child policy, but we have Planned Parenthood, contraception and abortion. Do we really have a "choice"?

And unless we start fighting now, we will soon have legalized euthanasia -- another "choice".