In China if a woman has two babies do they kill one because of the one-child policy?

China officially instituted the one-child policy in 1979, after two decades of political campaigns aimed at using social pressure to reduce population growth.

The Chinese government officially bans gender-related abortion, abandonment and infanticide (killing babies); however, anthropologist G. William Skinner (UC-Davis) and Chinese researcher Yuan Jianhua determined infanticide was common before 1990, when they formally studied Chinese family structure. Human rights groups claim the practice continues, although they are not certain to what extent.

Because boys are much more highly valued than girls in Chinese culture, most of the discarded children are female. Researchers Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren found that about half of the "missing" girls are adopted by other couples (both within China and Internationally). In 2001, more than 55,000 Chinese children were registered as adopted; however, sociologists believe this accounts for only a small percentage of adoptions, and that more occur without legal sanction.

China also strongly encourages abortion as a solution to multiple pregnancy, with some districts and regions setting abortion "quotas."

On the other hand, the one-child rule is not strictly enforced everywhere, and certain couples are granted exceptions allowing them to raise larger families without penalty. Variations on the law occur for a variety of reasons:

* The one-child policy only applies to Han Chinese, not other ethnic groups or foreign nationals living in China. * Members of ethnic groups other than Han Chinese are allowed to have two or more children, depending on the rules of the community in which they live.

* Many provinces and cities permit couples where both parents are only children to have more than one baby. * If the first child has birth defects, the couple is often granted an exemption. * If the first child is female, the couple is often granted an exemption. * Han Chinese living in rural areas are often allowed to have two children. * Government officials are usually exempt in practice, if not by law. * Multiple births (twins, triplets) are not penalized.

Urban families that are not exempt from the policy often choose to pay a "social maintenance fee," which is a fine imposed on parents to help defray the cost of providing government benefits to the extra child.

These practices have resulted in a fertility rate of 1.79 children per family, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Political groups are currently pressuring the Chinese government to modify the one-child policy to allow most families to have two children, arguing that children without siblings carry greater economic burdens, and experience more psychological harm than children with siblings.