Law for elderly creates a legal conundrum (3)

'It's not necessary'

David Fan, who works in advertising, would agree. He said he visits his parents twice a month or sometimes less but would be willing to see them more often if it weren't for the burden of his work hours and responsibility for raising his one-year-old son.

"It is not necessary to have a law like this," he said, "because most Chinese people are filial. Sometimes it is outside factors that hinder people from visiting their parents more frequently."

The new law provides that parents may sue negligent children, but Xu said she doubts many of the elderly have the energy or will to take their offspring to court. A "forced visit," she said, brings no joy to anyone. Moreover, in cases of estrangements because of family disputes, a visit might only reopen old wounds, she added.

Zhang Letian, a sociologist at Fudan University, said the "loneliness of the aged has become a big social problem," but the law won't accomplish its aims. Mandating visits or "greetings" from children to parents is overdoing it, he said.

Population mobility has cut many old family times asunder, he explained. Children move to cities, leaving their parents in rural hometowns. Young people go abroad to study and sometimes don't return. In Minhang's Hongqiao town area, for example, there are more than 10,000 seniors aged 60 or older whose offspring live overseas.

Sometimes seniors expect too much. They want their children to call or visit them every day or two, when the children have jobs and their own children and may only be able to visit once a week.

By June 30, more than 240,000 people had voted in a poll on Sina.com about the law. About 55 percent of respondents said they support it. About a quarter said the law is unworkable, and more than 17 percent said the government has no business trying to legislate family issues.

Sociologists believe there are better solutions.

Many governments, volunteer groups and sometimes the elderly themselves organize social gatherings for senior citizens to provide companionship for those without family around them.

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