The municipality of Beijing has eased its local birth control policy, making it easier for nine special groups of families to have a second child, according to a news story released on PlanetWire.org (8 August).

The nine groups that are allowed a second child include couples who have a disabled first child, who are the only child of their respective families and currently have only one child, and remarried couples who have only one child.

Under the former municipal Population and Birth Control Statutes, these couples could only have a second child at least four years after the first child was born and if the mother was at least 28 years old.

The revised statute, which will be implemented on 1 September, stipulates that couples who are subject to just one of these conditions can have a second child.

Deng Xingzhou, director of Beijing Municipality Birth Control Committee, said women who met both conditions were usually beyond the best age for giving birth. The revision aimed to ensure the safe labour and health of mothers and children, he said.

Beijing is one of the Chinese cities with a relatively low population growth rate.

In another development, the Wall Street Journal (8 August), reports that nearly 500 fertility clinics have opened in China in the past few years, despite the Government’s policy that forbids couples from having more than one child, except in certain circumstances. Between 1997 and 2001, the number of Chinese couples being treated for fertility problems increased more than nine-fold. According to the Journal, the increase is the result of the relaxed taboos surrounding infertility, an increasing number of Chinese people turning from traditional medicine to modern medical techniques and China’s growing economy, which has given many couples the financial means to undergo expensive fertility treatment.