National Geographic: China's Lost Girls 2004

Overview

National Geographic Ultimate Explorer host Lisa Ling examines the consequences of China's two-decades-old "one-child policy," designed to curb the country's exploding population. Due to cultural, social, and economic factors, traditional preference leans toward boys, so girls are often hidden, aborted, or abandoned. As a result, tens of thousands of girls end up in orphanages across China. Today, more than one quarter of all babies adopted from abroad by American families come from China—and nea