CHINA鈥檚 law on 鈥渕aternal and infant health care鈥� came under fire in Peking this week. Europeans attending the UN Conference on Human Rights and Women are using the meeting to protest against the law, which forbids couples 鈥渨ith certain genetic disease of a serious genetic nature 鈥� inappropriate for child-bearing鈥� from marrying unless they agree to be childless.
The European Society of Human Genetics and an alliance of support groups for people with genetic diseases say the law, which came into force in June, infringes the right to have a family. 鈥淭he problem is that the state defines who may have children,鈥� says Alastair Kent of Britain鈥檚 Genetic Interest Group. 鈥淚n China, 鈥榮erious genetic disability鈥� could mean just being Tibetan.鈥�
He recognises that poor countries may want to avoid producing disabled children, but says the law is not an effective way to do that. 鈥淢ost people with genetically disabled children have no symptoms, and no family history,鈥� says Kent. The only way to tell who is at risk is expensive molecular tests, he says, 鈥渁nd then which of the 5000 known conditions do you test for?鈥�
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