Divorce Attorneys
Premarital legislation requires re-thinking
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As Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province resumes the practice of mandatory premarital health checks for couples wanting to tie the knot, the nation is re-engaged in a hot debate over the soundness of the legislation. Local lawmakers said the regulation was reasonable since it would prevent congenital diseases and reduce the amount of birth defects. They point to statistical evidence that shows an increased number of birth defects in the province after the check-up became optional nationwide in October 2003. The argument supporting the resumption of the mandatory check-up, however, does not hold water. Statistics sometimes cheat. Heilongjiang’s highlighting of a rising number of birth defects is based on 2004’s figures. This one-year period is not long enough to prove any positive correlation between the cancellation of the mandatory policy and the increased number of birth defects. So the results given by local authorities do not make sense from a statistical perspective. Moreover, even local authorities admitted that birth defects were often caused by factors such as occupational diseases, which are irrelevant to premarital medical check-ups. A longer tracking time and more specific counting are indispensable before such a policy can be re-enforced. In a legal sense, the Heilongjiang regulation contradicts existing national laws and regulations. Currently two laws and a regulation are in play in China related to physical examinations before a couple wed, namely, the Marriage Law, the Law of Mother and Infant Health Care and the Regulation for Marriage Registration. Although it stipulates that such check-ups are indispensable for a couple that want to marry, the Law of Mother and Infant Health Care was promulgated 10 years ago. The latest Marriage Law and the Regulation for Marriage Registration no longer require the check-ups as a prerequisite for legal marriage. According to the principle of China’s Legislation Law, the latest legislation should be considered when deciding whether a practice can be adopted. The freedom of marriage is an undisputable civil right. It should not be subject to intervention. Moreover, getting a marriage licence does not necessarily lead to the birth of a child. Imposing mandatory check-ups in the name of preventing birth defects is unfair for those who do not want to have a son or daughter. Local policy-makers may see it as their duty to protect the health of new couples and their babies, but no protective measures, however well intentioned, should violate the basic right of citizens protected by the law. |
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