A plan for controlling
the ratio of the sexes
By Professor Xiong Ping, Ph.D.
Population Institute Review,
November/December 1996, page 10.
Editors note:
We print the following article, written by
a Chinese professor of forensic medicine, not because we endorse the ideas it contains.
Our motivation is the opposite: We have allowed Dr. Xiong Ping to vent his views in this
publication precisely because we find them so starkly reprehensible. We have in the past
carried stories about the character and consequences of China's one-child policy. But no
reportage, no editorializing of ours could possibly convey, the way that Dr. Xiong's
effusion does, the degree to which Communist Party-controlled discussions of population
control in China are so utterly void of human sentiments, so lacking in any appreciation
of human rights.
Dr. Xiong's "modest proposal" to
breed better Chinese men (and women) is easily summarized. All women would be allowed two
children. The first would be born naturally. But the state would insist-presumably by
sex-selective abortion-that the majority of second children be boys. The reasons for this
"controlled disproportion," as he calls it, is frankly eugenic in nature. His
aim is to produce a population that is not only smaller, but of significantly "higher
quality" than that which now lives and breathes.
Such is Dr. Xiong's state of mind that he
considers his plan to be progressive, even liberal. After all, as he implies, his proposal
would mean that the restrictive one-child policy would be relaxed and replaced with a
two-child policy. It would mean the end of the forcible sterilization and abortion of the
mentally and physically handicapped.
Yet it would replace these human rights
violations with others, no less repugnant: The elimination of large numbers of female
fetuses in utero by the state. The conscious denial of the possibility of marriage and
family for a substantial percentage of the male population. State endorsement of the
notion that the handicapped are somehow less than human and should be eliminated. And
continued forced abortions and sterilizations for those who presume to violate the
two-child policy.
There is only one point on which Dr. Xiong
is to be congratulated, namely, his candor. For his manipulative view of human
reproduction, as well as his dream of a race of supermen, is shared by many, both inside
and outside of China.
I propose that each woman will be allowed
to give birth to a second child (and no more) in accord with China's existing
controlled-birth policy. The first child can be born naturally. The second, however, will
be encouraged to be a boy, with the help of modern medical knowledge and techniques.
This is neither pure controlled birth
(since the first birth is natural), nor pure manmade disproportion (since at least one
child per family will be born without choosing the sex), but a controlled disproportion,
in which the excess males are equal to the number of the physically and mentally disabled,
a proportion of about 10%.
Males are freely chosen by females, and 10%
of them are not likely to find a wife. When they die, their bad genes are eliminated. In
the next generation, there will be fewer child-bearing women. After two or three
generations the population will go down sharply and the quality go up sharply. This
accords with the existing birth control policy and the demands of the people to have sons.
It fits the situation in China and avoids the disagreement among law, ethics and human
rights.
With the increase of population the number
of mentally disabled is increasing. These people can't create, but burden the family and
the whole society as well. The defective genes of the disabled are carried down to the
next generation. As a result, the absolute population quality can't be improved.
China's government asks parents to give
birth only to well-developed children, but we are far from the goal. It is of great
importance to lower the quantity and improve the quality, which has much to do with the
prosperity of the Chinese people, the future of the human race, and the happiness of
millions of families.
Modern civilizations also have negative
effects on the question of population quality. In the past, medical conditions were very
poor. Human society evolved according to Darwin's theory of "survival of the
fittest." The most weak and disabled children died before reaching reproductive age.
But now, with superior medical techniques, they can survive and produce another
generation. Unavoidably there will be a degeneration in human genes, which will result in
the decrease of population quality.
In the history of human development,
although there are marriages based on social factors, the majority of cases are decided by
the ladies' choices based on the above conditions. In the pure feeling marriage, the
couple must have certain qualities, otherwise there will be no feeling. For instance,
those whose IQ is below 60 can't look after themselves; how can they love? [Emphasis
added].
Human development has undergone several
stages. There appeared the matriarchal society, which was replaced by the patriarchal
society. It proves that there existed an inequality in the proportion of men and women
several times in human development. The unstable proportion was mainly due to humanity's
struggle against nature. We advocate control of the proportion of men and women by plan.
No woman at the first birth will be allowed
to choose a boy or a girl. At the second birth she can give birth naturally or choose to
have a boy. We should make out a suitable proportion, considering the number of the
disabled and of premature deaths so that men at sexual maturity will be more numerous than
women and equal to the proportion of the disabled.
Because there are more men than women,
women will have great freedom in choosing men. Under the control of the monogamy law,
there should be more than 10% men who would not be able to get a wife. There will exist a
competition in which those men who are not capable will be eliminated.
Even if a low IQ woman will marry, as she
give birth to boys, with the free choice of several generations the defective genes will
be eliminated. Thus the quality of the nation, especially that based on genetics, will be
increased.
The new birth theory will control gender
ratio by plan. Since 10% of the nation's men will not be able to find a wife, these
500,000,000 men will not reproduce. After a life cycle 500,000,000 lives are eliminated.
In addition, since there are 250,000,000
women unborn, the unborn women will not give birth. If one woman can give birth to two
children, 500,000,000 lives will not exist. By planned gender ratio, the population's
increase rate will be slowed down, and the population's quality will be increased with the
defective genes giving no birth. Throw one stone and kill two birds.
Someone will say that we are abolishing the
law prohibiting low-IQ people from bearing children. Certainly it is very good to avoid
these genes through legal methods. But it is very difficult to make the law.
There is no way to avoid fraud and
deception without an authoritative method for grading the weak-minded. If the weak-minded
are trained to take the IQ test, their IQ may seem to surpass that of normal people,
rendering the test ineffective. It's hard, then, to determine who is mentally disabled.
Nowadays, our people haven't attained such
a degree of ethics, as to persuade the weak-minded not to give birth. The ethics level
remaining unimproved to some degree, the law (prohibiting their giving birth) won't work
effectively. I think it is not the proper time to control birth and marriage of the
weak-minded by ethical or legal methods.
While there are as many weak-minded men as
women, they have no problem getting a wife or a husband. According to this theory, such
weak-minded people will be eliminated by natural rule. This will eliminate discussion of
the so-called human rights and human sins. [Emphasis added.]
Of course, once this new theory is adopted,
there will be a disproportion of men and women, which will cause many social problems. If
10% of the male population can't find a spouse, chances are that there will be an increase
in such problems as rape, violence and prostitution.
Even without this disproportion of the
sexes, there also exist such problems, so that it is not the disproportion that brings
them about. There may be an increase of such problems, but at the same time the society is
developing and the legal system is being perfected so that such crimes will be prevented
and won't lead to serious social problems.
The present one-birth policy is also not a
perfect one. For example, there are many city families with better conditions and good
heredity who can give birth to only one child. This leads to a comparative decrease in the
proportion of better heredity. In the countryside some families give birth to two or more
children. This brings an increase in the proportion of worse heredity.
This birth management theory is not
immutable or frozen. With the development of human society, especially the development of
productivity and the improvement of the economic level, people's view of reproduction will
reach a certain stage.
At that time, the human race will find a
new rule of self-adjustment. Maybe they will come back to natural birth. But for now, each
couple giving birth to two babies can maintain the level of ZPG (Zero Population Growth).
The world's population will thus remain a constant number.
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