<P> Various provinces began to pass laws barring certain classes of people, such as the mentally retarded, from reproducing in the late 1980s . The Chinese Maternal and Infant Health Care Law (1994), which has been referred to as the "Eugenic Law" in the West, required a health check prior to marriage . Carriers of certain genetic diseases were allowed to marry only if they are sterilized, or agree to use some other form of long - term contraception . Though the requirement for the health check has been dropped at the national level, it continues to be required by some provinces . Local medical doctors make the decision on who is "unfit" to marry . Much Western comment on the law has been critical, but many Chinese geneticists are supportive of the policy . </P> <P> In the Chinese province of Sichuan in 1999, a sperm bank called Notables' Sperm Bank opened, with professors as the only permitted donors . The semen bank was approved by the authority for family planning in the provincial capital Chengdu . </P> <P> In postwar Japan, the Eugenic Protection Law (ja: 優生 保護 法, Yusei Hogo Hō) was enacted in 1948 to replace the National Eugenic Law of 1940 . The main provisions allowed for the surgical sterilization of women, when the woman, her spouse, or family member within the 4th degree of kinship had a serious genetic disorder, and where pregnancy would endanger the life of the woman . The operation required consent of the woman, her spouse and the approval of the Prefectural Eugenic Protection Council . </P> <P> The law also allowed for abortion for pregnancies in the cases of rape, leprosy, hereditary - transmitted disease, or if the physician determined that the fetus would not be viable outside of the womb . Again, the consent of the woman and her spouse were necessary . Birth control guidance and implementation was restricted to doctors, nurses and professional midwives accredited by the Prefectural government . The law was also amended in May 1949 to allow abortions for economic reasons at the sole discretion of the doctor, which in effect fully legalized abortion in Japan . </P>

How did european states pass the buck before world war ii