Eugenics plan

China will use abortions and sterilisations 'to avoid new births of inferior quality and heighten the standards of the whole population' under a new law submitted to parliament, Reuter reports from Peking.

Officials presenting a Draft Law on Eugenics and Health Protection said 'China is in urgent need of adopting such a law to put a stop to the prevalence of abnormal births'. The bill proposes that those with hepatitis, venereal disease or mental illness will be banned from marrying; pregnant women with 'certain infectious diseases' will be advised to halt the pregnancy; and couples with diseases 'should have themselves sterilised'.