Is it Department of Health policy to conduct "premarital screening?" After my husband (then fiance) and I filled out a marriage license application, an employee asked me aloud how old I was, then how old he was. Our birth dates were on the application in front of her. Noting previous marriages, she asked the first name of my first husband, then the name of my husband's first wife. I asked her reason for asking. Marriage license policy
calls for 'truth' screeningHer response was, "Well, since you asked ..." She said the department sometimes gets applicants who have known each other for only a short time, may be rushing into the marriage and may not know the "truth" about each other. I find the questions and the reasoning offensive and obtrusive.
It is department policy to ask those questions, basically for the reasons given, said spokesman Patrick Johnston. The policy has been in effect for years.
"We have received very few complaints about this process so see no reason to change it," he said. The policy will be reviewed should complaints mount, he said.
One clarification, while you are required to verbally state your age, you do not have to give the first name of your ex-spouse, if there is one.
Asked why the department feels it necessary to give applicants a second chance to think about their marriage plans, Johnston said the primary reason is to ensure that they are old enough to marry. Even though ages are required on applications, a verbal answer "is a way of confirming that information is accurate," he said.
Also, "the (reconfirmation of age/marital status) policy is based on the fact that, in the past, there have been instances where an individual is not familiar with the background of the soon-to-be spouse," Johnston said. Some people have actually decided not to get married based on information learned while filling out an application, he said.
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- Bikeways brouhaha
- Puppy looking for home
- Mahalo
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