Eugenics and child welfare / by Sir John Alexander Cockburn.

  • Cockburn, John Alexander, Sir, 1850-
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eugenics and child welfare / by Sir John Alexander Cockburn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/10 (page 255)
    Ch« * / <Jr i 0 CHILD PROBLEMS. Under this heading problems relating to child life are discussed. The opinions of recognized experts are given and an attempt made to present impartially all aspects of each subject dealt with. EUGENICS AND CHILD WELFARE. From The Hon. Sir John Alexander Cockburn, K.C.M.G., M.D. Knight of Grace of the Order of St. fohn of fernsalem ; Late Premier ajid Chief Secre¬ tary of South Australia; Chairman of the Representative Managers of London County Council Elementary Schools; Author of “ Australian Federations The science of eugenics ends with the introduction into the world of the infant. It therefore does not include the vital subjects of child- rearing and education, although it furnishes the raw material out of which the future man is, by these agencies, to be fashioned. The tendency to-day is to attach increasing importance to innate qualities and to recognize that, notwithstanding the plastic nature of the human larva, there are strict limits in the case of each individual to its potentialities. Hence the significance of eugenics to child welfare and to the race becomes proportionately emphasized. It was that distinguished sociologist Benjamin Kidd who proclaimed the fact that the continued existence of a nation depends on the degree to which consciously or instinctively it prepares for posterity, thus expos¬ ing the fallacy underlying the plausible theory of the utilitarians that the ethical end was the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The man who asked why he should do anything for posterity as posterity had done nothing for him was a terminal twig from whom evolution has nothing to expect. Eugenics endorses the natural law of unselfish sacrifice of the parent for the welfare of the offspring. In this respect instinct has proved superior to reason and as in the beginning the healing leaves of the tree of life are the antidote to a surfeit on the fruit of the tree of knowledge. In truth, by the law of evolution, our lives are held merely in trust for the benefit of those who are to come after us. What a racial crime then appears the absence of provision for maternity insurance. Surely if the State sees, fit to regulate marriage it should regard unsuitability for parentage as an even greater evil than consanguinity. There is a difference of opinion as to the hereditary nature of cancer and some other diseases, but all are agreed as to the deadly deteriorating influence of syphilis. Thousands of children come into the world doomed from this cause to the misery of countless