The decision prohibits marriage between people who are married. However, the custom of taking many wives and husbands of ethnic minorities still exists in many places. In Xa Dung commune, Dien Bien Dong district, Dien Bien province, there are many cases of taking two wives because of "satisfaction" or wanting a son to continue the family line... In the commune, there are 20 villages, Mong people account for 80%, the rest are Thai people, there are 8 men taking second and third wives. Mr. Cha Gia Lu (48 years old) has 2 wives and 10 children; Mr. Lau Chu Di (60 years old) has 3 wives and 8 children. All of these wives were "taken" publicly and lived together in the same house. Mr. Chua Xo Day, Chairman of the People's Committee of Xa Dung commune, said that the Mong people's concept of "ten girls are not worth one boy" and the custom of polygamy has dragged down all achievements and efforts to escape poverty of the commune government [53].
Not only does it happen in mountainous districts and remote areas, but right in Van Con, a commune of Hoai Duc district, Hanoi, polygamy is also a "normal" thing. Many of the 50-60 year old generation have their first wives carry the gifts to ask for a second wife. Younger people do not have such marriages anymore because the law does not allow it, but the situation of having a second or third wife without reporting to the authorities is not rare. For example, the case of Mr. Tran L, a retired principal of a school in the commune, is famous for his achievement of "sweet sugarcane hitting the whole cluster", he married two wives who are sisters and had three children with these two wives [37].
The underlying cause of polygamy is that people have low legal knowledge, and the feudal concept of having a son to continue the family line is still prevalent in men's minds. In addition, the implementation of marriage registration procedures at local authorities has not been strictly implemented. Many people register their first wife according to the law, but they only have a wedding or live together with their second wife, thus causing difficulties for local authorities in management.
Besides polygamy, we also need to talk about the current adultery problem. Due to the negative side of the market economy leading to degradation.
In terms of morality, affecting the relationship between husband and wife, the phenomenon of adultery is happening more and more, adultery is not only happening to husbands but also to wives, among young people and the elderly. Adultery breaks up families, leading to the risk of contracting social diseases, causing people to lose faith in life, affecting family life, the psychology of children... However, according to current law, to punish administrative violations of monogamy, there must be an element of "living together as husband and wife". According to Joint Circular No. 01: "Living together as husband and wife must be proven by having children together, being considered as husband and wife by neighbors and the surrounding society, having common property, having been educated by family, agencies, and organizations, and continuing to maintain that relationship" [59]. Therefore, to administratively punish an adulterer, three factors must be proven: they have children together, they have common property, and their cohabitation must be confirmed by neighbors. In reality, there are people who have had affairs for decades, and if they and their lover do not have children together and cannot prove that they have common property, it is difficult to punish them, but they only violate morality and are condemned by society.
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- People who have lost civil capacity can still get married.
The 2000 Law on Marriage and Family does not prohibit people with common illnesses, including mild mental illnesses, from getting married. However, in reality, many marriages involving people with mental illnesses have caused many troubles and unfortunate consequences. For example, although she knew that Mr. Nguyen Van B had suffered from mental illness for a long time, because she was "too old to get married" and was forced by her family, Ms. Tran Thi T still decided to marry Mr. B. At first, she simply thought: Before, Mr. B's family lived with him without any problems, so she would marry him and live under the same roof with him, so it would be fine. Storms and misfortunes came to Ms. T when her husband's illness became more and more serious with very aggressive "attacks", he often beat her brutally. When she was 3 months pregnant, one night, while she was sleeping, her husband grabbed a wooden stick
beat her repeatedly, as a result, her child was born with congenital mental illness and shrunken limbs. The local government intervened by sending him to the provincial mental hospital. From here, she escaped the beatings of Mr. B, but every month she had to go in and out of the hospital to visit her husband. In addition, she had to take care of her disabled child, living unconsciously, without intellectual development. Her future life had no hope... Through this case, it is clear that there needs to be stricter management of the issue of marriage of people with mental illness to protect the rights of women and children born with the misfortune of having congenital diseases.
In the above case, the child was born with a congenital mental illness, which affects him/her for life and creates a burden for the family and society. According to Dr. Nguyen Van Thinh - Deputy Director of the Central Psychiatric Hospital, in terms of medicine, the manifestations of mental illness are quite complicated, the patient often has paranoid thoughts, impulsive behavior and the manifestations of the disease are very difficult to predict. Therefore, the mentally ill person does not have the guarantee of a peaceful family life and safety for family members. The family of the mentally ill person needs to have the necessary coexistence skills and the important issue here is: Whether or not a person with a mental illness gets married needs the advice of a specialist. In cases of mild illness (such as depression), the patient can get married if they find someone to love. In this case, it can also be considered a way to treat the disease. However, if the patient has had the disease for a long time and tends to get worse, they should not get married to avoid tragedies happening to the family. And in any situation, people with mental illness should limit having children so as not to affect their children's health in the future... Therefore, before entering into a marriage, both parties always need to carefully research and consider their own health as well as that of their future spouse so that no one has to suffer sad endings or irreparable pain.
Currently, according to the provisions of the Civil Code, a person who has lost civil capacity is a person who has a mental illness or other diseases that lead to the loss of the ability to perceive and control his/her behavior and is declared by the Court to have lost civil capacity based on the request of those with related rights. Therefore, a person who is unable to perceive and control his/her behavior but does not request the Court to declare that he/she has lost civil capacity is not considered to have lost civil capacity and therefore still has the right to marry. In reality, there are very few cases where relatives (such as father, mother, paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents, brothers, sisters) request the Court to declare that their relative has lost civil capacity. The Law on Marriage and Family does not require family, relatives and other people who know about the illness of a person with a mental illness or other diseases that cause loss of cognitive capacity to declare or make a commitment before the marriage registration agency. In cases where the Court has not declared the loss of civil capacity as prescribed above, there are different interpretations in the application of the law such as: (1) still allowed to get married because it does not violate the prohibition; (2) not allowed to get married because it violates the condition of voluntary marriage as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 9... Many cases have been accepted and resolved by the Court at the request of the competent authority to annul illegal marriages due to violations of Clause 2, Article 10, but the parties themselves and their families have objected and the People's Committee where the marriage registration certificate was issued has also disagreed with the Court's decision because it believes that the marriage registration in this case is in accordance with the law. In addition, currently, when registering for marriage, in addition to the single certificate to confirm that there is no husband or wife, no other documents are required to certify the current health status of both parties. Therefore, when there is a request to marry a person with a mental illness or other illness that leads to the loss of the ability to perceive and control behavior, the competent marriage registration authority will be very confused and difficult to handle.
- Marriage status between relatives within three generations According to statistics from the Center for Population Research and Development (Total
Department of Population and Family Planning, Ministry of Health), in some ethnic groups such as Lo Lo, Ha Nhi, Phu La, Chut, E De, Chu Ru, Chut... and especially the ethnic groups Si La (Dien Bien, Lai Chau), Lo Lo, Pu Peo (Ha Giang), Mong Xanh (Lao Cai), Ro Man, Brau (Kon Tum), out of 100 marriages, 10 are incestuous marriages [24]. And they are the ethnic minorities with the most obvious risk of population decline in quantity and quality due to incestuous marriage. According to the research documents of this center, there are ethnic minority areas that still strictly apply consanguineous marriage to the point that only people of the same bloodline are allowed to marry, and if they violate, they will be fined... Also according to statistics from the General Department of Population and Family Planning: In the past 5 years, in 13 mountainous provinces, the number of consanguineous couples has tended to increase. It is estimated that on average, each year there are 100 more consanguineous couples. This situation has been and is happening in the provinces of Hoa Binh, Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Cao Bang, Bac Kan... This is one of the causes of the decline in the quality of the race, affecting the population quality of mountainous provinces [24].
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Duc Phan - Head of the Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Hanoi Medical University: Most children born to consanguineous couples are at risk of genetic diseases due to the influence of the environment on the combination of recessive genes carrying the disease. Common diseases include: sickle cell anemia, metabolic disorders, G6PD enzyme deficiency (cell protection enzyme), congenital hemolytic anemia (Thalassemia), children may have facial bone deformities, enlarged abdomen, which can lead to the risk of death. According to data obtained by the National Children's Hospital, currently, there are about 5 million children carrying genetic disease genes due to gene mutations from consanguineous marriage. These are anemia and congenital dwarfism [24].
Article 10 of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family stipulates: Marriage between people of the same bloodline, between relatives within three generations is prohibited. In addition to ethical and customary factors, the prohibition of marriage between people of the same bloodline is necessary to maintain the health of the next generation. However, the issue of incestuous marriage is more difficult to control, manage, and prohibit in ethnic minority communities because most of the people here live according to this custom. This custom becomes a part of the cultural life of that ethnic group, so it is very difficult to eliminate in a short time. In their opinion, this issue is handled from the perspective of emotions and habits, without considering the legal aspect, as long as both families agree, the couple will become husband and wife. In fact, local judicial officials are aware of the situation but cannot solve the situation of "the king's law is weaker than the village's custom", despite using measures to encourage, mobilize, and explain to people to understand the problems that their children will encounter if they marry within the same bloodline.
The regulation prohibiting marriage between people of the same bloodline, between people related within three generations, has low feasibility when applied in ethnic minority areas. In fact, some local courts have decided to annul illegal marriages in cases of early marriage, incestuous marriage, etc., but these are often difficult to enforce. There are cases where people pay administrative fines and still continue to live together, so this sanction is currently being ignored by the people. In addition, because early marriage and incestuous marriage cannot be registered at the People's Committee, these cases are often couples living together as husband and wife without registering their marriage [10].
There are many reasons for the current situation of incestuous marriage in some localities, including: (1) due to the influence of customs (being forced to get married early to have workers and descendants); (2) Young men and women of ethnic minorities have few opportunities to study and improve their understanding of rights and obligations in marriage and family in particular and legal rights and obligations in general.
In general; (3) State management work still has many shortcomings, administrative and criminal cases of violations of the marriage and family regime in general and violations of consanguineous conditions in particular are rarely resolved in practice; civil status officers in some localities, for many reasons, do not fully grasp information about the current situation of consanguineous marriage, leading to many difficulties in providing solutions to overcome the above situation.
- Relatives marry each other
Article 10, Clause 4 of the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family prohibits marriage "between adoptive parents and adopted children; between people who used to be adoptive parents and adopted children; between fathers-in-law and daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law and sons-in-law, stepfathers and their wives' children, stepmothers and their husbands' children" [42]. The prohibition of marriage between these people is based on ethics and customs. Marriage between people who used to be adoptive parents and adopted children, between people who used to have relationships between fathers-in-law and daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law and sons-in-law, stepfathers and their wives' children, and stepmothers and their husbands' children, although it does not have a genetic impact on the next generation, it disrupts the hierarchy and relationships in the family, does not ensure the maintenance of order in the family, and thereby affects the ethical values of the family and society. With the increasing trend of divorce, there are more divorced people remarrying to form new families, so the relationship between the above people will increase, so it is appropriate and necessary to prohibit these people from marrying each other. However, applying this regulation in determining the conditions of marriage is very difficult, especially when the parties are not conscious, because there is no basis for determining between those who have had a relationship as father-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother-in-law and son-in-law, stepchild and stepfather or stepmother... that relationship is not shown on any document, except for the household registration book if they live together. Especially in cases where these people deliberately hide those past relationships, move to another place to live and reside to
If two people get married, the competent marriage registration officer cannot detect this irregularity and will register their marriage without knowing that they have violated the law.
In addition, marriage between the husband's stepchildren and the wife's stepchildren, between adopted children or between biological children and adopted children in a family has never been provided for in the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family, but it is a reality that needs attention. The above subjects are siblings in the family, but there is no blood relationship or kinship between them, so if a marriage arises, how will it be resolved? There are many opinions that, morally, we cannot or find it difficult to accept the marriage of the wife's stepchildren with the husband's stepchildren, adopted children of the same adoptive parents or biological children with adopted children, although there is no negative impact on the race by blood. When two people who are related as above request the government to register their marriage, the civil status officer cannot find a legal provision to resolve the matter. The couple argues: "We can do anything that the law does not prohibit!". This has caused difficulties and confusion for the civil status officer.
- Same-sex marriage
Homosexuality is a very complicated issue, which is spreading and in public opinion there are many conflicting opinions: agree or disagree. In recent times, many homosexuals have been stigmatized, discriminated against or subjected to domestic violence. According to research results from the Institute for Social, Economic and Environmental Studies (iSEE), homophobia is still widespread, especially through words, with 95% of homosexual men surveyed having heard others say that homosexuals are abnormal. In addition, when discovered to be homosexual, 20% lost friends, 15% were scolded or beaten by their families; More seriously, 4.5% were attacked for being homosexual, 1.5% said they were expelled from school, 4.1% were kicked out of their accommodation and 6.5% lost their jobs for being homosexual [10].