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Birth defects on rise after checks loosened
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-03-04 00:56
China should amend the marriage registration regulations to reinstate
mandatory premarital health checks so as to guarantee the health of newborn
babies, according to a proposal submitted to the ongoing political consultative
session.
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couple watch attentively at embryo samples with birth defects at an
exhibition to promote premarital health checks in Guiyang on January 19,
2005. [newsphoto] |
"The rate of premarital health checks have plummeted as China ended the
mandatory practice in the marriage registration regulations that took effect on
Oct. 1, 2003," said Chen Shouyi, a member of the National Committee of the
Chinese People's Political consultative Conference (CPPCC).
This situation has led to a noticeable rise in the rate of birth defects and
newborn deaths, which could be spotted in premarital health checks and
prevented, acknowledged Chen.
As the rate of premarital health checks dived to 3.1 percent in 2004 from 98
percent in 2001 in Ningbo City in eastern Zhejiang province, the rate of birth
defects shot up to 19.56 per thousand births in 2004 from 12.6 percent in 2001,
according to relevant statistics of the Chinese Ministry of Health.
Less than 10 percent of the would-be couples underwent premarital health
checks nationwide in 2004, with the rate dropping to less than 1 percent in
certain regions, noted statistics.
Of the premarital health checks conducted in China each year, venereal
disease, hepatitis and other hereditary diseases are found in nearly 3 percent
of the checks, said Chen.
Shandong Province, east China, spent more than 500 million yuan (about 60
million US dollars) on the raising the kids classified as congenital deformities
and idiocies annually in the mid-1990s. Calculated on this basis, the relevant
national spending could amount to tens of billions of yuan. The psychological
burden on the part of parents should be even greater.
"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 law-making National
People's Congress.
Zhao, Chen and another CPPCC National Committee member have proposed amending
the marriage registration regulations in a bid to make premarital health checks
mandatory. In this proposal, they also appealed for reducing or exempting check
charges of the disadvantageous group of people and phasing in free checks across
the country.
The service standards of relevant medical workers should also improve so that
more people have access to them, says the proposal.
"The marriage registration regulation, which took effect in 2003, is designed
to respect individual privacy," acknowledge Chen, "but the rise in the number of
birth defects also deserves attention."
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