Protecting the Right to Life of Children with Disabilities in China

ABSTRACT

Chinese social policy to support parents in caring for their children is vital to address the urgent social problem of abandoning the life of children with disabilities by not seeking medical treatment. The child rights approach was used to analyze the effectiveness of Chinese social policy to protect the right to life of these children. Primary and secondary empirical data from 3 case studies where parents decided whether to abandon their child were analyzed. Did the child protection mechanisms protect the right to life of these children, and when did parents decide to abandon their children? The findings were: a) When the children were born, their right to life was not unconditional; b) the decision was made privately by parents—no formal decision procedure was available, the role of professionals was minimal, and the state did not intervene; and c) parents considered the disadvantages to their children if they lived. The implication is that China has not yet established a system to support parents and protect the lives of young children with disabilities. Future research to inform child protection reform and disability support to children and families to prevent children becoming abandoned is urgently needed.

KEYWORDS.:

• Right to life
• child welfare
• families of children with disabilities
• Chinese social policy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Dr. Jiawen Xie, who organized and managed the fieldwork collection, and the team of field researchers from Beijing Normal University.

FUNDING

The research was funded by the Australian Research Council and Right to Play (China) and was conducted by researchers from the University of New South Wales, Australia and Beijing Normal University.

NOTES

Notes

1. The article uses the terms “children or child with disabilities” to be consistent with the person-first language adopted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

2. Ethics approval was obtained from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

3. Approximately US$80,000; 1RMB = US$6.3.