What is eugenics? / by Leonard Darwin.

  • Darwin, Leonard, 1850-1943.
Date:
1928
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.

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    FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS 49 Marriage might sometimes be the best thing for high-grade feeble-minded persons, and at all events after sterilization it would be harmless to the race. Without this precaution, the marriage of certified mental defectives adds greatly to the difficulty of preventing parenthood, and it ought to be made illegal, except in cases when parenthood is impossible. To sum up, the right poHcy for feeble-minded persons is to send them to institutions ; or, in selected cases, to place them under guardianship, the probabihty of parenthood always being held in view. This would result in a slow but continuous decrease both of this grievous malady and о many other evils associated with it. The Mental Deficiency Acts were mainly designed to safe guard aU mentally defective persons, whilst they have had a beneficial effect in lessening parenthood. Though imper feet, they have done much good in certain districts, whilst in other places they have not been properly carried out. It is easy, from the figures already given, to get some idea of the number of mentally defective persons in your county or borough. Ask your representative what accommodation his Council has available for them, and you may find that it is miserably deficient. In that case, if you wül suggest that your vote at the next election wül be decided by the way in which the candidates regard this matter, you will have done something practical both for thé feeble in mind and the future of your country.