The Geneva Congress on public morality : September 17th to 22nd, 1977.

  • International Abolitionist Federation
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Geneva Congress on public morality : September 17th to 22nd, 1977. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    seems that there is in this a considerable sanitary guarantee; the conditions likely to communicate infection are sufficiently easily recognised; at least one can discover the most danger- ous cases and detain the diseased until they are cured. It is almost inconceivable that this should not constitute a real sanitary gain. Such is the argument of the doctors. But observe how far this is from penetrating the depths of the question. It is necessary first to remember the classifi- cation of venereal maladies, and to remember that, in the opinion of medical men, the form of disease which it is most difficult to detect in time, is precisely that which is most dangerous, the constitutional form. What then is the value of a sanitary measure which must fail in the most important cases, in those in which society is most interested? * * If then you have followed me so far, you wid understand that against the diminution of infection which is expected from the system of sanitary inspection, stands the double fact that you can only subject a very small number of women to its control while the vast majority escape, and that those who are subjected to it. are placed under conditions so contrary to nature,—that their persons are so abused that it is impossible to do what the State pretends to do—guarantee the health of this human merchandize. * * 1 Now I beg scientific men to think over all these considera- tions, and to note how, at each new step in our argument, and as our criticism cuts deeper, how when we have sought to take a broad view, moral considerations force themselves upon us, although we endeavour to leave them aside, and to busy ourselves solely with physical health. You invent a project by which you—the State—propose to set aside a certain number of women destined to be the slaves and the instruments of men’s lust; you propose, by your system of examinations, to keep them in good condition; you find that you cannot, with all your care, keep them in good condition. Why ? Because your whole conception is profoundly immoral, and against nature; you have no respect for the human body; you forget the soul within it; you think only of making these women serve men; you acknowledge not the humanity, the life, the individuality of these poor instruments, and you fail because physical human nature refuses to lend itself to your plans. You apply the law only to women. That is part of the immorality of your conception—they are there only to
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