Filial support legislation in Hong Kong: A sensible and practical policy?

Recently, there is controversy in Hong Kong whether the government should e nact filial support legislation in Hong Kong so that the burden of caring f or elderly dependent people could be shared between the government and the adult children. In this paper, we briefly discussed the theoretical framewo rk for the relationship between family and state welfare and,we reviewed ho w filial support legislation was implemented in other countries and their e xperiences in practising the law. The availability of family care in Hong K ong might be decreased due to the process of industrialisation and urbanisa tion in terms of the change of the family structure and household size; the increasingly aged population; more active participation in the labour forc e by women and the dying out of traditional value of filial piety towards t he elderly people. On the other hand, studies have shown that family care i s still the major care providers for the elderly people in Hong Kong. Final ly, we reviewed the pros and cons of the filial responsibility law and we c onsidered that public education is a better alternative for filial support legislation.