Your Thoughts on Limiting the Number of Children Per Couple to Only Two

China limited their people to only having one child. What happened? People who had twins killed the second child in fear of overtaxing and prison. Abortions mounted, and the population tripled over the years China has enforced this law. Limiting the amount of children one can have is narrow minded and inhumane. Aren't most of use glad we didn't have to not exist because we had the "misfortune" of being born second? In closing...the world is overpopulated? Go live in Montana, Wyoming, Greenland, Iceland, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Guinua - there's plenty of room there!

Sadly in the UK we do it the other way round, poor families have herds of children an rely on the state to support them, more children, more benefits! Families who earn a modest income will have one or two. Rich families will also have loads of children because they can afford to spend x amount of money on nannies, childminders etc... China has the right idea and we should soon follow before we do face population explosion and our resources dry up and famine won't just be in poor countries it will be widespread.

I really do not like the idea of having possibly the government place limits on how many children a couple could have. But, I think that couples need to limit and discipline themselves with respect to the number of children they bring into the world. I think many couples do not take into account the finances that it does indeed take to raise children, including food, clothing, shelter, education (college incuded), medical, extracurricular, and more. They truly believe it is enough to give a child love, food, clothing, and shelter and sometimes forget that not taking into account the other amenities can place their child at a disadvantage now and in the future. I would think this would be common sense thinking. You know, most parents claim to want to give their children more than what they may have had (not just material things) and yet they go and have more children then they are truly financially able to afford. I see this all too often on the base I am presently at. Families having 5 and 6 kids and yet their husband is low rank and I know they aren't making a heck of alot of money. They use WIC and scrounge to get by. But they are happy...So, I guess that's all that matters. I just wish couples would look at the big picture and that there is way more to having children then just being able to barely provide the basics.

That is not really far - it is actually more discrimination and giving more to the "rich" What if a rich couples have 10 children and somehow they loose all their money - what then! Or what if a poor couple gets pregnant even after the 2 allowed, Should they be forced to abort - or should the woman be sterilized for beeing poor? No, I do not think that the ability lies in money only. A poor mother might not be able to buy everything, but still sje loves them with her life. The way you are suggesting it - it would be a sign of money to have alot of children.. and maybe even alot would be born just because of this cause and not really loved!!!

I'm not going to pretend I wasn't a little astounded at how many posters agree with this type of discrimination. Maybe more than others, since I have 5 children, and I fully resent anyone feeling they'd have the right to tell me I was in the wrong for having a large family, simply because it's not commonplace anymore. How many children I chose to have is my business. How many you have is your business. When we allow third parties to regulate personal decisions, you are giving them carte blanche to do that in every aspect of your life. Are you familiar with the reproduction limitations in china, and how the situation backfired on them? You might be interested in checking up on that. Regardless, reproduction is a personal choice, for each to make for themselves. Some of us love large families, so we chose to create one for ourselves. Although, I think I'm finally getting used to the stares and glares from those who feel we're a drain on society as a whole, even though my husband pays enough taxes to support a few families monthly on assistance. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing a law like this would never pass here, with religion being so ingrained in politics. It's against catholic dogma to stop reproduction ... which is why they're against contraception and abortion. And since we're a society dominated by catholics & christians, being the majority, a law of this nature would be dismissed just as quickly as it was suggested.

i dont think its right to tell somone how many children they can have.Now days a familiy usually concists of husband,wife and 4 kids.Thats on average.I rarely see people have more then 4 kids now days.And also now days alot of people make the decision to not have kids at all since they can control it.In plus..think about it....as many babies that are born a day theres more then likely themmany deaths if not more.I do think though that there should be a law where if a person gets there kids tooken away once from CPS and then given back they should have to be sterelized cuz obviously theyre are unfit parents.I also think it should be a law that teenagers have to be on birth control.Cuz most of the population now days is based on teen pregnancy.

I think limiting the number of children anyone can have would really take away from personal freedom. However, if the people involved are receiving welfare benefits, then they need to be denied the right to have more. I know a family we had about a dozen kids and never paid for anything themselves. The children were brought up ignorant and believing that the world owed it to them to pay their way. None of the kids had any plans of working for a living. They started having families in high school, and all of them lived on welfare. Taxpayers should not be expected to pay for something like that. Most people struggle to afford one or two children of their own without having to pay for people who aren't willing to even try to pay their own way. Lots of restrictions and limits need to be placed on people with a track record like this. They should not be allowed to receive welfare for more than 2 children. They need to show just cause for being unemployed. They need to demonstrate competence in child rearing or else have the children taken out of the home. Being on welfare shouldn't just be a "gimme" situation.

I think that arbitrary limiting is a facist knee-jerk reaction. The technology exists to feed the people of the world now, but we do not do it. People starve in many countries, including in the United states. Why? Because there is no profit in feeding the people of the world. Governments, especially the US government are already stealing away the rights of the people at every turn. How would you enforce your child limits? Who would decide? Liberty is already dying, don't give them more ways to kill freedom by supporting any more infringement into our lives. Start working on stopping the illegal and immoral war Bush is waging. Hold him accountable for his war crimes. Of course you might argue that Bush and his violations of our own laws is in fact a form of population control.. personally I think it is just criminal.

In south Australia, the government want couples to have more children, as our population is too low. Sadly, population is not evenly distributed throughout the world. Unfortunately, the countries that most need to lower their population, are the poorest nations. China being the exception, as they have a population control policy.

I don't agree with that kind of discrimination. It isn't fair that some people are born into money, and others owrk really hard all their lives and still don't have much. I think that if we are going to restrict the amount of chldren people have then it should apply to everyone. You are right we do need to limit the population but I don't think stopping people having children would be very popular and therefore no government would do it.

I really don't agree with this kind of discrimination. Couples should be allowed to have as few or as many children as they want regardless of how rich or poor they are. Limiting people on welfare to two kids isn't right. It's not going to stop people claiming welfare. Not by a long shot. I agree that people on welfare are abusing the system, but if it's not because they have so many kids, it'll be for another reason. There are any number of people on welfare for many different reasons. I know many couples who are very financially stable and they don't want kids at all. It's all about personal choice. It shouldn't be decided by how financially stable you are as to how many kids you're allowed to have. There are certain places the government DOESN'T belong, and one of those is the bedroom!

I dont believe that anyone should have the right to limit a person on the number of children they can have. The ability to have children is something thats natural and should not be controlled by the government but rather by each indivduals personal choice- except in extreme cases. Something that would help to limit the worlds population would maybe be to have a more effective form of birth control so that those who dont want children or are not yet ready for them dont end up having children.

i dont see how they could stop people having more than 2 children anyway, what happens if someone has triplets or quad's or even more, i know its rare but it can happen, what they going 2 do kill the rest or take them away?? It should be up to the person themselves, or the government could just say (depending on the couples financial situation) you get benifits for the first 2 children then after that you on your own, same should go for girls who have babys under 16 ect, they should not give them houses and money, thats why half of them get pregnant in the first place.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous to put a limit on children. having tried to conceive my beautiful girl for three years i was overjoyed to learn I was pregnant. That was six years ago now and i have been unable to conceive another. i have had numerous fertility tests, undergone a laporoscopy taken fertility tablets etc. etc. and then to find out i have PCOS and endometriosis. It's heartbreaking when your period arrives every month, if i could i would have had at least three children, my daughter would give anything to be a "big sister" and it breaks my heart every time she asks will she ever get a baby brother (oh yes it has to be a boy!!) I'm 38 now so the chances of that happening are very slim. I'm sure other people with similar circumstances will agree with me, that every child is a gift and should never be limited unless there are genuine reasons, not the world's economy or population!

the depletion of our resources seem to be a bit exaggerated usually...as for limiting to two kids...well I think the only danger we are in is that the mass portion of the breeding is lower intelligent inbred people with no concept of what they are doing on this planet and or how to use protection..so like that movie IDIOCRACY we'll end up with one stupid planet

I think that it depends on the couples financial situation whether they should have children at all or if they should have more than a couple. It also depends on their mental state as well as there have been too many tragedies and sad situations where the parents neglected or abused their kids. If they are financially able and mentally able to take care of more than a couple of kids, then they should be allowed to have as many as they want. I think it would be impossible though to limit a couple to just a couple of kids. It is their choice on how many they want. Even though the idea sounds good about limiting the amount of children, it would be very difficult to stop people from having more children if they wanted more.

I think people should have less children, are world is terribly populated and we have way more children than our world could ever handle. There are 7.5 billion people on this planet. That is way too many.

I can understand all of the reasoning and the benefits to mandated population control, but I just can't accept that it is the right thing for a government to try to impose on people. Whether or not to have children is a personal choice, and I think that it should stay that way. If anyone were to be limited, I would say that it should automatically start with families on social services/welfare/medicaid. These families tend to have many children and get additional benefits for every additional child. I also have to think that many people decide not to have children at all; I decided that I didn't want kids, so do I get to donate my 2 "credits" to someone else? It seems that it would all even out somehow. Another aspect of population control is to make effective forms of birth control available to everyone worldwide at no cost , if necessary.

As far as I fell about it, I fell that its just not the children that should be the only resposnibility for the parents. I believe as they are the residents of a society and this world, the enviroment and world is also a part of their responsibility. I fell that couples should start thinking wisely, they should also think that its the world they are responsible for, and its only them who can control the population and the save the resources and some species as well. As you said that couples i mean parents should have children as per their capability, I say its totaly wrong, I say that parents must have children seeing and keeping in mind the capability of mother earth. As far as it goes I shall and will stand for limiting the number children per couple to two, irrespective of their capability. This will help us in preserving the earth and some of it space for the forthcoming generations and save them from greater troubles. Thank You. Take Care And May GOD Bless YOU

it should be up to the couple how many children they have, just as long as they can provide and care for them all