IN CHINA during the 1970s, there was a campaign of “One child is good, two are okay, and three are too many.” This was the beginning of the One-Child Policy for people living in towns and cities. People have been able to save money because one child costs much less than two or three children. But these parents do not have children to care for them when they are old and cannot work, because their one child has to take care of his or her own family and has no time or money for his or her parents.

However, in 2007, about 30 delegates asked the government to cancel the One-Child Policy. According to them, it was better for children to grow up in families with more than one child. They are happier and learn to share better when they have brothers and sisters. In 2013 the Chinese government said that families where one parent is an only child could have two children. And then, in 2015, more than 30 years after the beginning of the One-Child Policy, the government cancelled the policy completely. This means that all couples can have two children now.

 IN THE USA, Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets in 2009. Twins are two babies born at the same time; octuplets are eight. When the octuplets were born, Nadya already had six children, who were 7, 6, 5, 3 and twins who were 2 years old. Now she had 14 children.

The children lived with Nadya and Nadya’s parents in a three-bedroom house. They had no father.

Angela Suleman, Nadya’s mother, said that the house was full of toys which Nadya had bought. That is all she bought. She didn’t give her mother any money for food or electricity.