Needed change in family planning policy

A couple in Chuxiong in Southwest China's Yunnan province face a dilemma, for they have to choose between the husband's job as a policeman or having a second child since the wife is eight-month pregnant. The cause of their dilemma: the existing family planning regulations do not allow them to have a second child.

Although a person can lose a civil servant's job for having a second child according to common practice, in July 2014 the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a guideline that specifically banned abortion at an advanced stage. Many countries do not allow abortion beyond five months' of pregnancy. And abortion, irrespective of any family planning regulation, after eight months is against social ethics, because by that time the fetus acquires the basic characteristics of a human being and even could survive premature birth.

Article 49 of China's Criminal Law stipulates that a woman who is pregnant during a court trial is exempt from the death penalty, which guarantees legal protection of the fetus' right to life. And the Law of Inheritance stipulates that an unborn fetus enjoys the right of inheritance.