So I did some more research because I never could recall the result of their debate:
"Officially, the government remains committed to the one-child policy. But it also commissioned feasibility studies last year on what would happen should it eliminate the policy or do nothing.
An official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission said privately that the agency is looking at ways to refine the limit without getting rid of it.
A people shortage may seem unlikely in a country of 1.3 billion, the most in the world. The concern, though, is not with the overall number.
Rather, as the population shrinks, which is projected to begin in about 15 years, China may find itself with the wrong mix of people: too few young workers to support an ageing population.
It is a combination that could slow or, in a worst-case scenario, even reverse China's surging economic growth.
The government and families will have to tap savings to care for the elderly, reducing funds for investment and driving up interest rates. At the same time, labour costs probably will rise as the work force shrinks and squeezes out some industries.
In a survey of 18 638 women in Dafeng and six other counties in Jiangsu province, 69% of those eligible to have a second child said they would stop at one, with economics being the major factor.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences survey did not calculate a margin of error.
Only afford one child
"Government control is no longer necessary to maintain low fertility," Zheng Zhenzhen, who headed the study, wrote in the November issue of Asian Population Studies magazine.
"A carefully planned relaxation of the birth-control policy in China is unlikely to lead to an unwanted baby boom."
Family size has dropped dramatically since the 1970s, when the average Chinese woman had five to six children.
Today, China's fertility rate is 1.5 children per woman. Most families have just one, but exceptions allow multiple children for ethnic minorities and a second one for rural families whose first baby is a girl.
Surplus males
In just 10 years, the age 20-24 population is expected to be half of today's 124 million, a shift that could hurt China's economic competitiveness by driving up wages. Over the same period, the proportion of the population over 60 is expected to climb from 12% or 167 million people to 17%.
"We feel like we're seismologists, you know," said Wang, who has helped lead a data-driven campaign to persuade the government to drop the one-child policy.
"This earthquake is happening and most people don't see it. We feel we have the knowledge to detect this and we should tell the public."
Another concern is a surplus of males. Sonograms became more widely available in the 1990s, and some parents who wanted a son aborted their baby if they learned it was a girl.
Though the practice is illegal, statistics make clear that it is widespread. The male-female ratio at birth was 119 males to 100 females in 2009, compared with a global average of 107 to 100.
Experts fear that, in the years to come, the gender imbalance will create a frustrated generation of men unable to find spouses. That in turn could fuel the trafficking of women and girls to be sold as brides.
Still, not all experts agree the one-child rule should be dropped."
So far a conclusion has not yet been reached!