Does Singapore really a need a law forcing children to take care of their aged parents? If yes, why?

There is not a single doubt in my mind that filial piety is a value that Asians need to uphold. However, we are now in a state of dilemma - to enact law to achieve an end, and that is to enforce filial piety legally to address the ageing population problem or to consider other means of achieving the same end result.

I would like to urge that all perspectives and circumstances are carefully considered and debated before enacting such a law to govern human relationship and family ties. Law is objective and trascends empathy in order to enforce justice. This destroys the basic element of any human relationship, especially complex family relationship further. To enact a filial piety law - will this compound our major problem of declining fertility further and contribute to more fewer marriages and more import of foreigners ultimately? I do not have an answer and I hope our Government has an answer to it. I agree with the social sector that we need to look beyond law to achieve such end.

We need to ask ourselves - what make our children foresake their parents? Is it due to heavy financial burden or health issue that the children cannot undertake this responsibility? Is it due to broken ties? Is it a blatant disregard of children' responsibility to their parents? If this is due to financial or health reasons, then, this is not a question of filial piety anymore because the children would also have a parental and personal responsibility to fulfill. Which comes first - a question that is not easy to answer. This would mean the government would need to find non-legal ways to help this group of people to support their aged parents in the very hour of genuine needs. If it is due to broken ties where the aged parents did not fulfill the parental responsibility in the first place, how then can we convincingly convince their children to live up to their part of the bargain later on. Any good and effective law needs to address this fundamental issue of fairness and equity. I know of aged parents who hoard their own money and expect their children to contribute to their monthly expenses, medical bills etc even when the children can hardly make ends meet. If this is a blatant disregard of filial piety, this is the group of people where the government should really go after but what is most tricky is how to enact law that targets this small group of people.

I would like to believe that most who forsake their aged parents belong to the first and second groups. No one, as a human being, would not shoulder the basic responsibility of taking care of their loved ones if financial state and health permit.

Singapore is facing an ageing population issue, the burden on the government is severe no doubt. However, to enact a filial piety law, we are just telling ourselves that this severe burden of responsibility should solely lies with our children and our future Singapore children. The world has changed dramatically and drastically in the last 30 years and the Singapore children who are born in the 60s and 70s face this largest burden of responsibility of taking care of our aged parents, rising cost of living, taking care of our children and at the same time worrying about job security. For example, during our parents' time, CPF contribution rate was the highest at 40% combined and there was no one single cut in CPF contribution rate. Our future children in the 80s, 90s and 2000s would even feel more stressful no doubt. Living stress could be more severe than my generation going forward into the future.

Business cyles are becoming shorter and shorter. In a short 12 years (1997 to 2009), Singapore has faced three major economic downturns in Asian financial crisis, dot com bubble and the present global financial crisis. We all rallied as one Singapore - both the Government and the people. I wish we will tackle this ageing population problem as one people together and shoulder this burden of responsibility as one Government and people.

If the premise is that a filial piety law can address the ageing population issue, then, it can also be concluded on the premise base on the same logic that we enact a parental law that each married couple must have 3 children at least or face a compounding fine to arrest the declining fertility problem. We have a stop- at-two population policy in the past. In this way, we will need to rely less on foreigner import to make up the number to sustain our economy. In China, there is such a penalty which I have heard where a couple would be fined for having more than one child under normal circumstance to contain the population problem.

Perhaps, we may consider some form of maintenance tax if our affluent children were to send their aged parents to old folks homes. In this way, it may make more sense to look after the aged parents at home to keep the family fabric intact and free up precious land resource to take in aged parents with a genuine needs by these old folks homes . For the

No, definitely not. As far as people can see it, this is just a way for the government to push away the costs of looking after aged people back to the already burdened citizens. In a time where Singapore is no longer a easy place to live and work no longer the 60s-90s, where the standards of living now is so very high, where wages are small for the everyday person, where competition for jobs and education is so very stiff and where even doing a business is given to high financial risk and not so profitable, and jobs so hard to get and tough to do, civil service jobs all go for paper honors, foreign competition, i can go on and on. The government needs to take careful measures to look into solving all these unintended consequences because by forcing it on the people would only create more problems to come since there are far too many factors to consider if the government would dictate that route on the people- take for eg, the children's financial situation- unemployed/low salaried/family etc.., did the parents support the child, are they on good terms or estranged, the question of whether the children want to or not, other than whether they can or unable to financially speaking due to their own family commitments and liabilities, and those who are aged and without children, how would those who can afford to but don't want to feel, etc...

Speaking as someone from a social science background , i feel that such a law is unnecessary and will create more resentment among the people towards the government now that life in Singapore is such a struggle for so many. Times have changed greatly and with a harder life now in Singapore, the government should be more understanding towards the needs and difficulties of the common Singaporean.

Its heart wrenching to read some of the views here... it shows how self centered and narcissistic we have all become... As a society we have become ungracious and ungratefull... Its unfortunate when individuals consider thier parents the Governments problem and expect the government to do everything.. What ever happened to TAKING RESPONSIBILITY...

On the other hand its heart warming to see that there are people in this world with compasion and love...

Life is relatively easy in a country like Singapore compared to most countries around Asia. The Government has made is so easy for the people that most have forgotten what hardship really is... Especially the younger generation that has got it sooooo easy.. Our parents have worked hard to bring up kids... like we work today for our Kids.. Remember WE"LL be OLD SOMEDAY... do we think all the money we save in fancy retirement funds (which god forbid is not wiped out in a financial meltdown like the last couple of years) is going to make us feel happy when we are OLD

There are some major concerns about spiraling healthcare costs. I beleive this is where the Government needs to step-in.. set-up a more robust and highly subsidised healthcare system. BUT a word of caution, we also need to be aware that for the Government to be able to do this, will mean Higher Tax structures (48%) like Australia.

So there are two ways of treating the problem... 1 we voluntarily take care of our elderly (for some our "problems") or 2 the Government will and tax us at a higher rate... choice is ours

Children should and must take care of their aged parents. However, it will be very taxing on the children if they have to do it without any help from the government.

All their lives, each senior citizen has contributed one way or another to the building of this nation. The government should do more; esp in medical costs for the aged. Some sort of monthly allowance will also help raise the spirits of the aged. It will be good for the government to help take care of our aged in ways comparable to other developed countries like UK or Australia or Japan. if this is taken care of, the aged can, with contentment, lead a life that is more meaningful and dignified.

Lastly, our aged should also be responsible for their own health by leading an active lifestyle and excercising. In many ways, the healthy and able aged can also contribute to society like helping out with the orphanages and SPCA and environmental groups. Helping others can make the aged feel more useful and find life more meaningful.

It is a costly affair to draft the law, so what criteria is it going to be? What is the income level of the children going to be to make the law apply? Is there any chance of abuse? What if the children don't earn enough? Is there a law to make sure parents take care of their children - No, it is a personal responsibility, except for education. I suggest it is a personal responsibility to take care of parents as well. It is also the responsibility of parents and schools to educate filial piety in these young people, so they grow up as responsible individuals. Of course some children will be exceptions even with proper education, which is largely due to the question of money and affordability, the medical bills are too high, maybe transferring child's medisave, ordinary and special CPF monies to parent's to supplement the expenses will work. If the law is to be set, that is the way. If the child do not have any CPF, then too bad. Singapore is not a welfare state, you can't survive in Singapore without money.

In my personal opinion, Singapore needs a law forcing children to take care of their aged parents because some old people are still working so hard to make ends meet, when in fact, a little amount from their children can go a long long way. Just how much do these senior citizens spend? Just a small amount, right? Everything is subsidized by the government anyway. Why do they have to work so hard for a mere hundred bucks? The children should remember, they will grow old too. So they should start the cycle of giving and caring.

I can't say strongly enough how against I am for this law being passed. I take care of my parents because I want to!

Why aren't we as a nation getting married and having kids? Why are our kids now having a hard time taking care of their parents? In another view, why do we parents even need our kids to take care of us?

Why is it so hard here in Singapore to plan for retirement?

This government needs to take a good look at all the social ills their money-before-everything-else polices are burdening us with.

The answer is VERY clear and it's simple what needs to be done to make Singapore a more humane society and laws like these do not even have to be considered! Instead they choose to close their eyes to the problem and continue to fill their pockets with our money while passing laws like this to further lessen their responsibility to the nation.

With the already extremely high government induced cost of living here bringing about all these social ills, I read today that they are now doubling the rental for hawker stalls????? In a RECESSION??? Do they not know this costs will be passed down to people who buy the food?

They continue to increase our cost of living and work to reduce our pay and turn blind eyes to all our problems! The number of children who won't or can't look after their parents is just a symptom and not the problem itself!

This government needs to bloody well WAKE UP!

My parent are getting older. When this topic was discussed, I was shocked to learn that my mother will commit suicide when she gets old or if she is to suffer from some unforeseen illness. I was really sad. But, I know she does not want to be a burden to me.

In fact, having a law does not really help the situation or solve the problem. But, without having a law to enforce this growing trend is a problem too.

Part of the burden should be shared by the Government as the aging population contributed to the growth of Singapore. They pay taxes when they are young.

Perhaps, there should be a fund to be created, just like MediFund. This fund may be a OldAgeFund, a monthly contribution from working adult and a matching equivalent amount by the government.

I don't feel that there should be a law forcing children to take care of their aged parents. Because this is more of like a family bonding, love issues..how about those kids who grew up with verbally or physically abusive parents and should we also have law to protect them?

I feel that the main reason why children do not take care of their aged parents is because the children and the parents are not bonded. They do not communicate well enough to feel there is love. If you love your children a lot and they are close to you, they naturally will take care of their parents when they are old.

High medical bill is also a problem as most old people do not even buy insurance when they are able to thus when they are old, the hospital bills became too much.

Getting about 10% of the children's salary to their parent's retirement savings is also a good idea. So when the parents are retired they have some savings. However, money is not everything, you can give them money but it cannot buy love.. there will still be loneliness that old people have to deal with and the depression that some old people have.

How about increasing more welfare for them? How about making insurance compulsory to buy for everyone when they are young? So at least when they reach the old age they know where they can turn to if they need help with the medical bill.

Improve on family bonding, communication, plan for more family awareness stuffs to improve parents-children relationship, these will be good.

en to take care of their aged parents because some old people are still working so hard to make ends meet, when in fact, a little amount from their children can go a long long way. Just how much do these senior citizens spend? Just a small amount, right? Everything is subsidized by the government anyway. Why do they have to work so hard for a mere hundred bucks? The children should remember, they will grow old too. So they should start the cycle of giving and caring.

Any law at this point will not be workable. Most young people, and for that matter even many retirees have aged parents. These people first of all will have to be responsible for their own children, and themselves. It is a sad but true situation, especially in Singapore. There are many Singaporeans who can't even afford medical care for themselves and their children, so how can they afford medical costs for their aged parents. The government should partially be responsible as most Singaporeans had been employed and have paid taxes faithfully. Consideration should be given on a case to case basis, rather than imposing or forcing the law to respective children. Most children do want to care for their parents in their old age, but cannot afford. Society has to help to overcome such issues.

More has to be done for the needy aged by government to ease the burden of caring for the old.