Eugenics, euthenics and love : how they go hand in hand / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D.

Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eugenics, euthenics and love : how they go hand in hand / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/32 page 15
    And the observations of the alienists and crim- inologists in recent years prove the correctness of the pre-conception. When two mental defec- tives are mated, their offspring are all defectives. Of course we can momentarily submerge the de- fective strain by mating the recessive individual with a normal individual. But the progeny all carry, submerged in their germ-plasm, the re- cessive factors. Even though themselves out- wardly normal, they represent tainted stock, and the taint will make itself manifest sooner or later in their progeny. Logically, then, there would seem to be no reason why such tainting of a stock should be knowingly permitted. There would seem to be no reason why a recessive individual of this type should be permitted to vitiate the germ-plasm of the race. So long as the recessive quality is latent, we can do nothing directly to eliminate it; but when it becomes patent in an individual case, opportunity is afforded to dam back permanently that particular stream of recessive germ-plasm. And the way in which this can be effected, obviously, is by sterilization of the individual who manifests the defect. Still holding to the biological point of view, there would seem to be no question that a proper regard for the welfare of future generations de- [15]
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