Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Blood Tests

Has anyone had to have a blood test as part of getting their marriage license? If so, what was the process of it? Was there a specific place you had to go to as part of the application process with a nurse or something, or could you just get a doctor or someone to sign off on it?

Basically, I'm wondering how a couple with a certain secret could deal with this particular road block on their way to wedded bliss.

Any information would be helpful.

Well, 25 years or so ago in California, my wife I had to get a blood test to get married. As it turned out we were friends with the lab technician that drew our blood for that test.

I think it would have been very easy to have had the test "fixed". The blood was taken in the local hospital lab area. That would have been the place to "introduce a variable" into the test. This test is really for the benefit of the people getting married and the controls were not very tight at all.

This was in a small town. It may be more complicated in a big city.

Bob

L&C know at least two doctors who could help - Sam Lane isn't in on the secret, but Dr. Kline is. Does it have to be any particular doctor, or just a letter from a doctor saying the blood test is OK?

Here's a link to show which states require blood tests and which don't. (I didn't see New Troy on the list.)

The purpose of the test is to find out if either party has an STD or is HIV positive (or has active AIDS). Since this is a pretty easy and very simple test, and the samples are destroyed after testing (where would anyone keep them?), I doubt that the test would reveal anything funky about Clark's blood.

Many states no longer require a blood test. Most of those which still do apparently need the proverbial "note from your doctor" documentation for the blood work. I think it would be easy to get around, unless New Troy requires that a particular person draws the blood, or if some lab tech used Clark's sample to do some homework.

Beth, you can make it as difficult or as easy as you need it to be for your story since the requirements vary from state to state. When my husband and I first married, we had to have a blood test that not only checked for STDs (no HIV in those days) but also immunity to German measles because it can cause such devastating birth defects. We took ours at the clinic where my childhood doctor was, and he took care of sending the necessary paperwork to the county clerk's office.

However, when we remarried some years later, no blood test was required. In fact, no minister or judge was required. All that was necessary to be married was to pay for the license and have someone in the clerk & recorder's office witness our signatures on the license.

So you can make the process as tough or easy as your story requires.

Thanks everyone for the help! It ultimately makes up a very small part in the fic I'm working on, but it drives me crazy if I don't get details like that right.