Eugenics / by Edgar Schuster.

  • Schuster, Edgar.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Eugenics / by Edgar Schuster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    248 EUGENICS and normal. 'After a few months treatment it was found that the patient had apparently recovered, and was able to go back to the industrial world, and it was learnt that he could secure his old position at ten dollars a week. Meanwhile the patient was at the State expense and his family was depending on charity. The only objection to his release was the danger of propagating more children of the sort already produced. The operation was proposed, but he objected. The wife was brought in, and the patient, hospital authori¬ ties, and the wife held a conference. The operation was finally agreed to by the man, and was performed, and the patient dis¬ charged.' Cases like this seem to show that there are occasions in which sterilisation can be per¬ formed without imposing hardship on any one, and almost with the certainty of pre¬ venting the birth of feeble-minded children, destined, if born, to be a burden to the community. Thus even in the present state of our knowledge of the laws of heredity it should receive (K)nsideration as a practical Eugenic measure. The only alternative which could effect the same object is some form of custodial care, either in an institution or under suitable guardianship. This has not the objection of being irrevocable, and has the positive merit of keeping safe those per¬ sons who would otherwise be likely to injure