What is eugenics? / by Major Leonard Darwin.

  • Darwin, Leonard, 1850-1943.
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

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

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

    43/104 (page 31)
    INFERIOR STOCKS 31 including some kinds of blindness and deafness, which cause great suffering when they appear, and which are apt to reappear in the same family for many generations. Many of these maladies could undoubtedly be stamped out in time if the persons so afflicted would make the noble sacrifice of refraining from parenthood. This is, however, a matter too technical here to be discussed at length. All that need be said is that all deformed or diseased persons should certainly consult a doctor before marriage. Indeed, all persons without exception had better do so. Some forms of insanity are said to be hereditary, and others not to be so ; though this is hardly a logical distinc¬ tion. It is true that insanity is sometimes the direct result of a contagious disease. In such cases the descendants of the insane and diseased man will not be more likely to become insane in consequence of their ancestor's disease; and his insanity may, therefore, be said to be not hereditary. If a person becomes insane, it is more often, however, because he has a certain predisposition to this disease. This predisposition may be strong or weak. If it is very weak, insanity may be avoided, or what is called cured, by leading a careful life. Now such a predisposition, whether strong or weak, is likely to be passed on to succeeding generations. Even if a person inherits a strong predisposi¬ tion to insanity, it is not certain that he will become insane. But if he does become insane, then his insanity wiU often be described as being hereditary. It should be for the doctor to decide in any case of insanity whether the predisposition was strong or not. And, if strong, the person so suffering certainly ought not to become a parent. Those who act thus will be happier in the end for so doing. If they have children, they will keep anxiously wondering whether their malady will reappear in those they love so much. And if it does reappear, they will have the agony of feeling that it is their own fault. As long as a person is in an institution for the insane, no question as to parenthood can arise. As to those who have been insane, and who are described as cured, there is often