BEIJING, March 4(Xinhuanet)-- Cao Shaping felt greatly relieved when she finally saw the first couple coming to her clinic for pre-marital health check, Thursday.

Cao's clinic, the Women and Infants Health care Center of Xicheng District in Beijing, began offering free pre-marital health checks on March 1.

Cao, head of the center, spent one hour and a half to examine the couple and offered consultations on pre-marital health.

Gao Hui, a nurse at the Beijing Hospital, and her would-be husband received tests for hepatitis and HIV and chest x-rays freeof charge. Results show that both of them are healthy.

Cao, who has worked at the center for more than 20 years, said that the clinic used to receive 40 couples a day in the past, but only two to three couples daily nowadays.

Pre-marital checkups were once compulsory for couples in China,who could not get a marriage permit otherwise.

But since the Chinese government abolished the compulsive pre-marriage checkups in October 2003, the percentage of new couples who pay for the checkups dropped to as low as 1.5 percent in Xicheng District.

Figures from the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau show that before October, 2003, 99 percent of individuals applying for marriage went through health checkups in Beijing. But in 2004, only 5.03 percent of the 198,634 individuals applying for marriagedid the tests. Of those who had the check, 13.62 percent were found to suffer from infectious diseases or infertility.

Last year, Beijing had 1,113 babies born with defects, accounting for 13.49 percent of the total annual births, indicating a rising birth defect rate, the bureau said.

A similar situation has also been reported in other parts of China.

In northeast China's Liaoning Province, only 5,400 couples, or 2.11 percent of the newlyweds underwent pre-marital checks last year, compared with 92 percent in 2002, according to the Liaoning Provincial Women and Infants Healthcare Center.

The center says that birth defects have been on the rise in theprovince from 2000 to 2004, which saw a record 94.8 new births with defects per 100,000.

Ministry of Health figures show that 20 million babies are bornin China each year, of whom 800,000 to 1.2 million with defects.

Although the figures could not prove that lower ratio of pre-marital health check-ups is a direct cause of higher incidence of birth defects, the problem has aroused wider concern in China.

Han Wei, a member of the National Committee of Chinese People'sPolitical Consultative Conference CPPCC) from Liaoning Province, Friday submitted a proposal to the on-going third session of the Tenth National Committee of the CPPCC, opened in Beijing Thursday,calling on the government to take effective measures to raise pre-marital check-ups and curb birth defects.

Han said, lack of pre-marital check-ups has undoubtedly affected the health of newborn babies.

"Although individuals have various reasons to fail the pre-marital check-ups, it is the obligatory duty of the government to reduce the birth defects," he said.

Han's view is echoed with by many other CPPCC members and deputies to the third session of the Tenth National People's Congress(NPC), China's top legislature, which will convened in Beijing, Saturday

Zhou Hongyu, a deputy to the NPC session from central China's Hubei Province, said that he would raise a motion to the upcoming NPC session, suggesting that pre-marital check-ups be included into the public health system, free pre-marital checks be promotedand the government should foot the bill.

Zhou said, the government's payment for the tests could not solve all the problems, but the government can at least set a goodexample for publicizing the necessity and importance of pre-marital health checks. This would in turn attract more and more young couple to undergo the tests on a voluntary bases.

An official with the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau said that they will take a wait-and-see attitude toward the promotion of free tests, because the charge is not the sole reason that people have opted not to take the tests.

Some young people take it for granted that they are healthy andbelieve there is no need for the tests. Some may already know thatthey have certain diseases and avoid the tests for fear that the result will prevent their weddings, the official said.

Beijing municipal health authorities expressed that health tests before pregnancy, during pregnancy and efforts to block infectious diseases being transmitted from mother to infants will be enhanced so as to improve the health of newborns.

Although voluntary pre-marital check-ups embodies respect for individuals, some people have suggested revisions of relevant lawsand regulations be made to make them comply with improving population quality and compulsory pre-marital check-ups be implemented for the same purpose.