Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 02, 2003
SW China Province Set to Lift AIDS Marriage Ban
People with HIV/AIDS should find it easier to marry under legislative changes being considered by southwest China's Sichuan Province, reported the China Daily Monday.
People with HIV/AIDS should find it easier to marry under legislative changes being considered by southwest China's Sichuan Province, reported the China Daily Monday.
"We need to revamp the regulation to bring it into line with national regulations and practices," the English newspaper quoted an official with the Sichuan People's Congress as saying.
The Ministry of Health issued specific regulations on the management of AIDS patients and HIV/AIDS carriers in 1998.
Under the health ministry regulations, AIDS patients and HIV/AIDS carriers may marry but they have to meet strict conditions todo so.
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.
"It is an international trend to protect the human rights of people with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases," the newspaper quoted Wang Yue, vice-director of the Health Law Department at the Beijing University, as saying.
Sources with the Sichuan People's Congress said the planned revision of the 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 vote, said congress sources.