Vincent C. Argento, Esq.
The founding partner of Argento Law Group, P.C., Vincent C. Argento, had this to say about recent developments in China requiring children to care for their elderly parents:
Not only did we have several laws designed to protect the elderly in Illinois recently enacted, it looks like World behemoth China has taken a major step in drawing the care for its elderly to the forefront.
On December 28, 2012 Chinese national legislation was amended so that adult children are now required to visit their elderly parents otherwise they could be subject to legal ramifications. China has nearly 167 million people aged over 60, and one million above 80. The life expectancy in China has increased dramatically over the last five decades – from 41 to 73. Rapid aging poses serious threats to the country’s social and economic stability, as the burden of supporting the growing number of elderly passes to a proportionately shrinking working population and the social safety net remains weak.
It has been reported that in China elderly parents are often neglected and even abandoned by their working children. The revised China Elderly People’s Interests Protection Law states that family members should care for the emotional well-being of elderly people and not neglect them. The law which takes effect in July provides those not living in the same house as elderly parents should visit them often or send greetings. The amendment does not specify how frequently such visits should occur. It also says that employers should allow paid leave, so that people with jobs can return to their hometowns to visit parents. The USA today and other media outlets report that some experts doubt that the change in law will help. Professor Zhang Xiaoyi, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s school of international and public affairs, believes that visiting and caring for parents was a traditional obligation for children, but is now an obsolete ideal. “In old age, people become reliant on their children, just the way babies rely on their mothers,” Zhang was quoted as saying. “But their children are unaware of these needs.” She said people’s failure to visit elderly parents was often blamed on people being busy with their own jobs and taking care of their children, as well as living a far away.
If a society deems “Rapid Aging” as a threat to the country’s social and economic stability, then laws like the one implemented in China above will never work. It takes the desire of the individual members of the family to step up and meet their responsibility.
What good is a society where so little regard is paid to its aging population? As Elder Rights attorneys, we are faced with this question almost every day.
