Beijing—A freewheeling discussion last week at an international genetics meeting here may have cleared the air on a controversial Chinese law to reduce infant mortality. The 1994 law, although aimed at improving pre- and postnatal health care, provoked a fierce outcry among some Western scientists because it appeared to forbid individuals with "certain genetic diseases" from marrying unless they agreed to be sterilized or take long-term contraceptive measures, and it also seemed to encourage abortions for fetuses with abnormalities. The provisions triggered a boycott of the meeting by the British, Dutch, and Argentine genetics societies, but several researchers from those countries came anyway. They and others came away from the meeting persuaded that the law is not as Draconian as it seemed and that in any case it is not being enforced.
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