Neo-Malthusianism and eugenics / by C.V. Drysdale.

  • Charles Drysdale
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Neo-Malthusianism and eugenics / by C.V. Drysdale. 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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    so. That therefore the reduction of the birth rate should be welcomed and encouraged so long as it is found to be accompanied by a material reduction of the death rate. 11. That, while in no way denying the possibility of ultimately supporting a much larger population or of accelerating the present increase of food production, and while welcoming all efforts in th>s direction, human life ought not to be produced beyond the reasonao’e expectation of immediate results. 12. That the struggle for existence due to over population is not the best factor for race improvement, or even a useful one, unless humanitarian schemes for the preservation of the less fit are abandoned, and that it should therefore be eliminated as far as possible by all civilised communities. 13. That prudential limitation of families enables early marriage to become general by removing the fear of economic difficulties, and is therefore a most important step towards the elimination of prostitution and venereal disease, and thus for the moral and physical improvement of the race. 14. That, in addition, the universal knowledge of hygienic means of limitation of births, especially by women, will be a great factor fcr race improvement by rational selection, owing to the natural desire Of women to avoid having children who are sickly or unlikely to have a good chance in life. 15. That the improvement of the race as a whole and of the coming generation is only compatible with the harmonious develop- ment of parents (women as well as men) in all their faculties, and that’ this development can only be secured by the freedom of women to have only such children as they desire. 16. That the elimination of unfitness should, as far as possible, be attained, not by restriction of marriage, segregation, or by sterilisation (which should be resorted to only in the case of those obviously incapable of self-control, such as lunatics and criminals), but by the inculcation of the great responsibility of parenthood and of the effects of such hereditary transmission, combined with a general knowledge of the most hygienic means of limiting families. 17. That, from the national or patriotic standpoint, it is not to the present advantage of this country that the government or society should encourage greater reproduction, but that every effort should be made to preserve and increase our national sources of subsistence, and thus to reduce our general and infantile mortality to its natural minimum. 18. That the struggle for existence due to over population has been the chief factor in human as in animal evolution, and therefore has been chiefly instrumental in bringing about existing social systems ; and that it is consequently useless to expect any great. ^.Iteration in the constitution of society, or that any material improve- ment would result from it, without removing the fundamental difficulty of over population.
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