Premarital blood tests in the USA

[Bretrick]

I heard this while watching the film - All about Eve - I had to find out why.

My first thought was, "Are the tests done to ensure couple were in no way related"?

Back in the old days, getting a marriage license always involved getting a blood test in every state in America.
It was an assurance by the government that you weren’t marrying someone who had either some sort of unknown venereal disease which could cause issues with potential unborn children.
But times have changed. Over the last 70 years, one by one, states have decided to do away with the blood test requirement as the medical industry has improved treatment techniques and legal decisions have passed judgments on the privacy rights of those who are dealing with the government.

 

[hollydolly]

WoW...I've watched all about Eve, that somehow passed me by... Never heard of it, in the UK or in any European country as a requirement...

 

[Tish]

Wow, my first thoughts were the same as yours.
As far as I know, we never had it here.

 

[Mike]

Don't Jewish people still have to get a blood test,
before they are allowed to get married?

Something to do with an illness that started among
them in Romania, then spread, a long, long time ago.

Mike.

 

[Bretrick]

WoW...I've watched all about Eve, that somehow passed me by... Never heard of it, in the UK or in any European country as a requirement...

Margo and Bill had just announced their impending marriage - Tomorrow we meet at city hall at ten, it's only for the license. There's a three day wait for the blood tests.

 

[hollydolly]

Margo and Bill had just announced their impending marriage - Tomorrow we meet at city hall at ten, it's only for the license. There's a three day wait for the blood tests.

yes clearly I wasn't paying attention ...

 

[Bretrick]

Don't Jewish people still have to get a blood test,
before they are allowed to get married?

Something to do with an illness that started among
them in Romania, then spread, a long, long time ago.

Mike.

I know not

 

[hollydolly]

Don't Jewish people still have to get a blood test,
before they are allowed to get married?

Something to do with an illness that started among
them in Romania, then spread, a long, long time ago.

Mike.

No idea, but an illness that started in Romania ?.. not Israel ?

 

[Pepper]

Don't Jewish people still have to get a blood test,
before they are allowed to get married?

Something to do with an illness that started among
them in Romania, then spread, a long, long time ago.

Mike.

NO. But it is advised. The disease is Tay-Sachs.

 

[Pepper]

The blood test was for syphilis. Only DNA could say if you're related & they didn't have it then.

 

[hollydolly]

NO. But it is advised. The disease is Tay-Sachs.

well I've learned something very new today...thanks Pepper, never heard of this at all...


https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tay-sachs-disease/

 

[Lewkat]

They were the Wasserman tests in order to rule out syphilis.

 

[oldman]

They were the Wasserman tests in order to rule out syphilis.

This was probably a good idea after we came back from Vietnam. I think there was more gonorrhoea, but there was also some syphilis.

 

[Lewkat]

This was probably a good idea after we came back from Vietnam. I think there was more gonorrhoea, but there was also some syphilis.

This went back to the late 1930s when it became law for these tests to be performed.

 

[Mike]

Thank you for the name, Pepper.

Thank you for the link, hollydolly.

Mike.

 

[Jules]

Nowadays it’d be rather pointless. Most couples getting married have likely done the deeds that spread it.

 

[Capt Lightning]

I colleague who came from California used to joke about another US state where, he said, "Family trees were circular in shape" and you went to a family reunion to look for a 'date'.

 

[David777]

Although not mandatory, it would be a minimum I would ask of any serious prospective woman I might marry because in this modern medical era blood tests are vastly more informative than decades ago that could go a long ways in understanding important issues that might be unknown without symptoms that for the sake of fairness are better known before committing to a life long situation.