Members of the National Committee of the 10th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have proposed that marriage registration regulations be amended to reinstate mandatory premarital health checks.

"The number of premarital health checks has plummeted as China ended the mandatory practice in the marriage registration regulation that took effect on October 1, 2003," said Chen Shouyi, a CPPCC National Committee member and one of the three sponsors of the proposal, which is being discussed at Thursday's session.

Chen said the situation has led to a distinct rise in the rate of birth defects and newborn deaths from causes that could have been detected through premarital health checks and prevented.

The rate of premarital health checks dove to 3.1 percent in 2004 from 98 percent in 2001 in the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. At the same time, the rate of birth defects shot from 12.6 per thousand births to 19.6 per thousand, according to the Ministry of Health.

Fewer than 10 percent of engaged couples nationwide underwent premarital health checks in 2004, with the rate dropping below 1 percent in some areas.

Venereal disease, hepatitis and various hereditary diseases are found in nearly 3 percent of the premarital checks conducted each year, said Chen.

In the mid-1990s, east China's Shandong Province spent more than 500 million yuan (US$60.4 million) annually on care for children with congenital birth defects.

"It's apparent that the health of the newborn has an impact on the medical burden of the society," said Zhao Suqin, a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature.

Chen's proposal calls for the restoration of the premarital health check requirement in the marriage registration regulations, but also calls for reducing or exempting fees for disadvantaged groups and phasing in free checks nationwide.

Standards for those administering the examinations should also be improved, according to the proposal.

"The marriage registration regulation, which took effect in 2003, is designed to respect individual privacy," said Chen, "but the rise in the number of birth defects also deserves attention."

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2005)