What is eugenics? / by Leonard Darwin.

  • Darwin, Leonard, 1850-1943.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: What is eugenics? / by Leonard Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/100 (page 36)
    36 WHAT IS EUGENICS? will not here be discussed, it being sufficient to remark that the balance of medical opinion seems to be in favour of the view that some of them are harmless. In any case, we may well hope that better means of preventing parenthood wiU be discovered before long. The objections which can be raised against each of these two methods of keeping down the numbers of a nation will next be considered. Continence may mean either the renunciation of marriage or abstinence from sexual rela¬ tions after marriage. The objections to these two forms of continence are sufficiently similar to aUow them to be considered together. They are as follows. In the first place, these^practices are so much against human nature that it would be out of the question to expect that under any circumstances they would be largely adopted by the bulk of the population. No doubt continence has been deliber¬ ately practised after marriage to a greater extent than is generally admitted in order to prevent the appearance of too big a family. But continence alone could never ward ofiE the evils of over-population. Moreover, continence would be more likely to be practised by persons guided by moral motives than by the thoughtless and the weak-willed ; for the better the couple, the more consideration, at all events, would they give to any advocacy of continence on moral grounds. The result of trusting to continence alone would, therefore, be that the imprudent and those whose passions are controlled with difficulty would have a propor¬ tionately large number of descendants. The harmful qualities which distinguished them—namely, carelessness, selfishness, and sexual passions—would consequently thus be made to increase in future generations. Another objection to continence in married life is that it may cause such a strain as to stand in the way of affection between husband and wife; a tie which is essential to the well- being of the family. Lastly, when only one of a couple demands continence, the other may make this an excuse, however inadequate, for adultery. Turning to the objections to birth control, it is urged