People with HIV/AIDS should find it easier to marry under
legislative changes being considered by Southwest China's
Sichuan
Province.
"We need to revamp the regulation to bring it into line with
national regulations and practices," said an official with Sichuan
People's Congress, who declined to be identified.
The Ministry of Health issued specific regulations on the
management of AIDS patients and HIV/AIDS carriers in 1998.
Under these regulations, AIDS patients and HIV/AIDS carriers may
marry but they have to meet strict conditions to do so.
A
person suspected of HIV/AIDS must undergo a medical check to
determine whether they are infected.
Then they need to attend a medical consultation at which they are
told all about the disease and given psychological counseling.
Under the health ministry administration, AIDS patients are advised
to postpone marriage temporarily.
But local Sichuan laws, which took effect in 1995, do not allow
AIDS patients and HIV/AIDS carriers to register marriages with the
civil affairs department.
The anonymous Sichuan congress official said the conflict between
local and health ministry regulations often puts registrars in
awkward situations.
Wang Yue, vice director of the Health Law Department at the Peking
University Health Science Center, said: "It is an international
trend to protect the human rights of people with AIDS and other
sexually transmitted diseases."
"People can live for a long time with AIDS and it is inhumane to
bar them from getting married," Wang said.
"Simply depriving them of their rights to wedlock will not ensure
that HIV/AIDS carriers do not have sex."
He
added that people can now take precautions such as using condoms to
prevent the spread of the virus to their spouses.
Sources with Sichuan People's Congress said the planned revision of
the province's laws also aims to encourage the public to do more to
control and prevent venereal diseases and AIDS.
The changes have already been considered once by local legislators
and will undergo a second round of deliberations in July or
September before they go to the vote, said congress sources.
(China Daily June 2, 2003)