Quake-Bereft Chinese Sow New Baby Boom

Some parents who lost their state-mandated only child in China’s May earthquake—which crushed at least 19,000 students under shoddy school buildings—are rushing to conceive again, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Chinese government announced an exemption from its one-child policy for such victims, and more than 800 have already registered their desire to get pregnant again.

In some cases, the $8,800 in government compensation parents received for their child’s loss has gone toward reversing birth-control procedures like vasectomies. Children traditionally provide financial support to aging adults in the impoverished Sichuan region, leaving the grieving parents with concerns about their future and highlighting the human cost of China’s strictly enforced population policy. (More China stories.)