The American nation screams out at the injustice of abortion, yet there are still practices going on in the world that can only be described as barbaric and inhuman. One of the most common of these present-day practices is female infanticide in China. This is the process of waiting until a woman reaches full-term pregnancy. Once the baby is born, it will be murdered if it is not the first child of the family and depending on the sex. I believe that in no way, shape, or form, that this practice should be allowed.
             These horrible murders are the result of China being overpopulated. Population growth targets were set for both administrative units and individual families. In the mid-1970s the maximum recommended family size was two children in cities and three or four children in the country. Since 1979 the government has advocated a one-child limit for both rural and urban areas and has generally set a maximum of two children in special circumstances. As of 1986 the policy for minority nationalities was two children per couple, three in special circumstances, and no limit for ethnic groups with very small population. The overall goal of the one-child policy was to keep the total population within 1.2 billion through the year 2000 (Population 1).
             The one-child policy enjoyed much greater success in urban than in rural areas. There were more compelling reasons for urban couples to limit the families to a single child. Couples with only one child were given preferential treatment in housing locations. In addition, because city dwellers who were employed in state enterprises receive pensions after retirement, the sex of their child was less important to them than it was in rural areas. In the rural areas, the preferred sex of a child was male because he would be more capable of helping his father on the land (Population 2).
             Even though the one-child policy was somewhat successful in certain areas, the new legislature proved not onl...