The Anambra State House of Assembly has passed a bill banning marriages involving people living with sickle cell anemia or incompatible genotypes.The law to be cited as Sickle Cell Disease Control and Eradication Repeal law, barred parents, guardians, traditional rulers or group of persons from giving out their children/wards in marriages without presentation of a certificate of verification by a qualified sickle cell expert of their genotypes.
The law stated, “Anybody who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offense and is liable on conviction to a fine of N200,000 or imprisonment to a term of three years or both.”
The law when it becomes effective shall also put in place a monitoring committee to ensure compliance.
He said, “The development would put a stop to the notion that love is blind by ensuring that intending couples must present their genotype test before marriage.”
Ezeani commended the Speaker of the Assembly, Mrs. Rita Maduagwu and other members of the Assembly for being the first to pass such health enhancement bill into law in the country.
The National Coordinator of People Living with Sickle Cell Disease, APLSCD, Aisha Edwards, who was also at the assembly, thanked the lawmakers for enacting the law.
She said the law above other things bars all forms of discriminatory practices against carriers of the disease, both in employment and admission into schools.
Source: Dailypost
