The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-30
MEDICAL REGULATION OF MAR
RIAGE.

A very drastic marriage license bill
has been introduced in the Maryland
Legislature It is an attempt to eradi-
cate disease and vice by requiring all
applicants for a marriage license to
submit to a medical examination before
the license is granted. There are five
sections to the bill. but the radical one
is the first. 1t provides:
Be it enacted by the general assembly
of the state of Maryland, that within
80 days after the passage of this act it
shall be the duty of the judge of the cir
cult court in each county in this state
and in Baltimore city to appoint three
persons who shall be reputable, prac-
ticing physicians, residents of such
county, and no two of whom shall be-
long to the same school of medicine
whose duty it shall be to consider and
pass upon all applications for license to
marry, now made to the clerk of the
circuit courts, and no license to marry
shall be granted to persons contemplate
ing marriage unless they shall have re-
ceived from the persons SO appointed
certificate setting forth that such appli-
cants are free from the following all
ments, any of which shall be deemed
sufficient cause for refusing a license:
Dipsomania. true insanity, hereditary
insanity or insanity resulting from vice,
primary, secondary or tertiary syphilis.
hereditary tuberculosis or consump-
ton.
No state in the Union has any such
country such a law: nor is Maryland
apt to have such a law. Were such a
law upon the statute book, it would be
imperative. People intending to get
married would avoid it by going into an
adjoining state, and where they could
not afford to do this they would prob
ably enter into actual if not legal mar
ital relations the same as the German
peasantry do who have not the statu-
obtain marriage license. People
would not submit to such a law, not,
because they would be apprehensive
about meeting all requirements, but
simply because they would not submit;
to the indignity Of the thing.
The enforcement of such a law would
be impracticable, no matter how desir-
able the attainment of the objects it
proposes.
Mr.. David Stewart, author of stew
art on Marriage and Divorce" gives his
views of the bill as follows:
when L was preparing my book 1
investigated the marriage and divorce
laws of every state of the Union and of
nearly every country of the world. 1
found nowhere a measure like the one
proposed here. Such legislation has
been discussed by sociologists for some
time, but it has generally been consid-
cred as too advanced and radical for
the times.
THE ancients pondered over problems
of similar nature. Plato's idea of a
model republic was one in which wise
provisions for regulating heredity
should prevail, and in Sparta, where
human life was not so highly regarded
as now, infants failing to measure up
to a certain standard were left upon
the rocks to die, the Spartans adopting
that method of obtaining the desired
racial results. In a number of Ameri-
can states insanity is now a cause for
divorce.
Il imagine great difficulty would at
tend attempts to enforce a law such as
is proposed. Sensitive people would OBJ
ject to it's inquisitorial features The
ordeal would be an exceedingly I'M
pleasant one. If physicians of prom
inence be chosen. the expense of their
services would prove a considerable
item. Unless the very best medical tall
ent should be employed. great injustice
might be done. Examinations conduct
ed by life insurance companies are
usually as thorough as it is possible to
make them, but are frequently unsatis-
factory.
perhaps the best way to carry out
a measure of the kind, were one deter
mined upon. would be to have candi- |
dates for matrimony fill out blanks |
similar to those provided by insurance
companies, giving what information !
they can about themselves and their