HEALTHY MARRIAGES

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3384, 24 October 1933, Page 5

HEALTHY MARRIAGES

SHOULD CERTIFICATES OF HEALTH BE MADE COMPULSORY?

EXPERIENCES HERE AND ELSEWHERE.

(Contributed.)

The economic depression has focussed attention very definitely upon the heavy burden of the social services, particularly the cost of preventable disease and the care of the infirm and aged, the mentally unfit and so forth. The declining birth rate indicates how necessary it is that every child born should live. The pressure of circufmstances. on the other hand, has acted to restrict families deliberately to an extent that has attracted the condemnation of various religious bodies, Avhile people Avho arp looking for a practical rather than a moral solution, have turned enquiring eyes tOAvard State control of births and sterilisation of the unfit, as means of improving future generations. Spectacular measures always attract the public and the politicians Avho represent the more spectacular element of the public itself. But one matter that has been too simple, perhaps, to be much advertised, is the possibility of improving future generations by wiser marriages.

BAD BARGAINS. While considerable attention is given to the worldly goods that contracting parties bring to a marriage, the physical and mental wealth contributed* often receives scant consideration and thjs lethargy is inexcusable. Australia and New Zealand are behind the times in this regard, and in many countries two plans have recently been adopted to meet the circumstances; the introduction of certificates of health before marriage, and the establishment of “ marriage advice bureaux.” The suggestion that certificates of good health or at least of freedom from certain contagious or inheritable diseases, should be issued to those about to marry, is by no means a neAv idea. There is, of course nothing to prevent one party to a marriage privately requiring a cei*tificate of fitness to marry from the other, and every doctor has seen the conscientious patients Avho come along desiring to be assured in the first place that they are fit to marry, and in the second that there is no impediment to their having children. On the other hand, every doctor knows that the patient requires a certificate to that effect, and will get one from, some source if he himself refuses it, Avhile a large body of public opinion, though admiring such voluntary examination recognises it as insufficient, and Avould demand compulsion in the interests of the State to ensure that the marriages of unfit persons shall he made impossible. The question of Avhat constitutes u*nfitness for marriage is naturally a disputed one, but there is no dispute about the fact that venereal diseases should‘be a bar—a heavy penalty exists in Queensland, and there is, I believe, a similar legislation in our oavii country, but I fear it is all too seldom enforced. Differences of opinion arise when such diseases as tuberculosis are under consideration and still more is this the case Avhen mental disease or mental deficiency is in question. MACHINERY.

If State certificates are demanded, there are two possibilities; either the person concerned is required to sign a statement that he or she is free from the diseases or defects included; or to produce a certificate of free dom signed by a qualified medical practitioner. In the first case, obviously there is much room for either consc'ous or unconscious evasion, and this in spite of penalties—>no one, for example, likes to institute an action in court to indicate that he or she has become infected with venereal disease, however innocently. In the second case the doctor accepts the same type of responsibility as he does when examining a person applying for a life insurance policy. Subh certificates usually debar sufferers from epilepsy, tubreculosis, venereal disease, insanity, imbecility, and feeble-mindedness. The first objection to such State certificates is the creation of still another Government department, to be paid for by the unhappy taxpayer while on the other hand, there is the fear that such legislative measures might seriously increase the number of births. Then, again, there is the possibility that a medical examination would need to be very complete indeed, or it would be value less. The old argument trotted out like King Charles’ head, that a certificate would be a grave interference with the private affairs and liberty of the individual, may be expected. but would give rise only to cynical amusement among a population that can’t be born, die, or hardly breathe, without a paper in triplicate to authorise the process! Certificates of health are requ'red in applications for public appointments, for insurance purposes and so forth, and all the information with regard to the presence of diseases in the individual himself, in Ins near relatives, and so on, is provided without any opposition. The troupe is that, as in many other cases, the good citizen does not heed the law and the bad citizen will attempt to evade jjf but on the other hand, the good cit’zen would make no protest at such a measure for safeguarding the future of the race, and the bad citizen should be compelled to agree to it. Ajs matters stand at present, many a doctor has to see with the utmost regret and exasperation marriages consummated between people who are diseased, and whose union can onlv lead to the production of unfit children. to become an increasing burden upon the State.

EXPERIENCE ELSEWHERE. In Sweden, where application is made for the banns of a marriage to be announced the man must sign a statement that he is not of kin to the woman in the prohibited degrees and that he is not epileptic or suffering from venereal disease: in Mexico impediments to marriage include both venereal disease and insanity; in New Jersey no marriage license is granted to habitual drunkards, insane persons, or imbeciles; Michigan forbids the marriage of epileptics, except when the woman is more than 45 years old and of any one suffering from venereal diease; while in Indiana no license to marry is issued where either of the

parties is an imbecile, feeble-minded, idiotic, or insane, or is under guardianship as a person of unsound mind, nor to any male who is, or has been within five years, an inmate of any asylum or home for indigent persons, nor Avhere either of the contractingparties is afflicted with epilepsy, tuburculosis, venereal, or other contagious or transmissible disease. In some countries—notably Austria, Germany, and some of the United States-—the establishment of centres for giving advice on all matters concerning marriage has found much favour since 1924. The aims of these centres Avith regard to marriage may be summed up as follows:—To. give applicants for advice full knowledge of their own physical condition; to delay the marriage of those suffering from communicable diseases until the disease is arrested; and to prevent the marliage of those Avho, whether sound or unsound themselves, have a history that makes it probable that the r offspring’s will be defective. We spend mulch time and a vast amount of money on infant Avelfare and the care of the sick and the unfit Avhde the feeble-minded and the invalid repesent an increasingly menacing mass of pension money. Why not begin at the other end, like com-mon-sense people,, and make marriage more healthy?