THE promulgation of the new Regulations on the Management of Marriage Registration on August 18 brought the issue of pre-marital physical check-ups to the forefront all around China.

　　The old regulations stipulated that those applying for marriage registration must go to the appointed medical health care centre to have a pre-marital check-ups and present the examination results to the marriage registration offices. The new regulations have dropped this requirement although a non-intermarriage statement has to be signed by intending couples to prove that they are not closely related.

　　Positive points

　　Gu Jun, a sociologist from Shanghai University believes that the new regulations in changing a mandatorysgroupsinto a matter of free choice was an important step in China's development.

　　One principle in a country ruled by law is not to interfere too much with individual freedom. Gu pointed out that people should be conscious that what the new regulations abolished was not the pre-marital check-up itself, but the element of compulsion.Considering the medical cost, China's pre-marital check-ups were only carried out in areas which had conditions to conduct them. Therefore, "The new regulations about premarital check-ups will mainly have a major effect in China's urban areas," said Xu Anqi, a researcher from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "The old regulations indeed had some flaws. For instance, they didn't clearly point out what kind of diseases made marriage undesirable." The imprecise and vague regulations left loopholes for some hospitals to expand the number of tests to be conducted and increased pre-marital check-up fees. And careless examination processes in some hospitals also caused resentment among marriage applicants.

　　"The doctor had an icy expression and his examination made me sore until the next day." said Jack Wang. He received his pre-marital check-up in the Pudong Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital. "The pre-marital check-up is necessary, but the examination process must be improved."

　　The introduction of the new regulations, will make couples who are re-marrying feel relieved.

　　Tang Guozhen from the Hongkou Maternity and Child Health Care Centre said that remarried couples, especially remarried old couples, were usually reluctant to take pre-marital check-ups. The reproductive system examination often put old people in an awkward situation since they would not be having babies any more - they just want to live together.

　　Arnold Han of Xi'an Jiao Tong University married three months ago in his hometown, a small county in North China's Shanxi Province. He and his wife didn't take a pre-marital check-up. "It's our personal thing and has nothing to do with the state," Arnold said.

　　He suggested that pre-marital check-ups should be optional and people who did not take a check-up should be responsible for whatever happened in the future.

　　Birth defects

　　"The implementation of pre-marital check-up aimed to improve the health of new-born babies and we want newly wed couples to enjoy a happy married life on the basis of having healthy bodies," said Zhu Huibin, the director of Shanghai Institute of Family Planning Technical Instruction.

　　In 1995, Zhu carried out research on 556 couples who had been advised not to have children after their pre-marital check-ups.

　　Th survey found that 60.8 per cent of those couples had not followed the medical advice and the birth defect rate in their babies was eight times than that of healthy couples. "From the point of view of medical science and population quality, pre-marital check-ups are quite necessary," said Wang Zhong, director of the Shanghai International Centre for Population Communi-cation.

　　"In our country, the rate of birth defects caused by genetic diseases and environmental pollution is still high."

　　Statistics from the National Population and Family Planning Commission shows that the rate of birth defects in recent years has increased to 1.3 per cent and in some provinces, the rate is up to 2 per cent. The death rate resulting from congenital abnormalities has risen from 2.2 per cent in 1995 to 3.1 per cent in 1999.

　　Compared with developed countries, the birth quality of China is comparatively low. "Our society should instruct people from the viewpoint of health education," Wang said, "Citizens should take a pre-marital check-up willingly, especially the young generation."

　　Suggestions

　　"We can't make sure that all future couples have enough medical knowledge and know all about their health situation," said Demon Dong from Shanghai AR Tech & Communication Corp. "Insgroupsto avoid having unhealthy babies, it should be suggested to intending couples that they take pre-marital check-ups."

　　Saying goodbye to compulsory pre-marital check-ups is an innovation put forward by China's new government. "The government is returning people's rights to people," Gu said, "The law has its own limitations. The issue of pre-marital check-ups can't depend on the law to be solved. It should be dealt with in a technical way." According to Gu, scientific medical education is the key to improve people's awareness of premarital check-ups.Unlike people living in Western countries, most Chinese are not in the habit of taking regular physical check-ups.

　　"Due to a lack of widespread medical knowledge, people don't even know which diseases will have a negative effect on marriage, especially on child bearing." said Shen Yansun from Sun Pharmaceutical Company.

　　having worked in the pre-marital check-up field for many years, Zhu feels deeply that peoples' medical knowledge was far from being sufficient. "We should treat pre-marital check-ups in a reasonable way and avoid going to extremes." (BY--Yang Yang)