Abstract
Scientific men generally, we think, will view with approval the sterilisation laws of Zurich; if obvious mental defectives were sterilised in England, it would be a great benefit, and it would in some degree diminish the numbers of the ‘social problem group’, but it would not solve the great eugenic problem which confronts the country. Mental defect is not a clearly defined factor or ‘gene’ but a damage of infinitely graded character. In its higher grades it merges insensibly into mere foolishness and idleness. Yet it is precisely these grades which produce most offspring and hand on the defect to posterity. Until the second half of the nineteenth century, these unfortunate offspring to a large extent died out before producing children. But our social legislation has raised their survival rate and thrown the cost of their maintenance on the really fit members of the community, who have in consequence restricted the numbers of their own offspring. These high grade defectives are people whom no government would dare to sterilise as a result of an examination in a mental clinic, and Dr. Maier frankly admits that this is so. A remedy for this state of affairs would be to adopt sterilisation as a penalty for bringing into the world children whom the parents are unable to support. It would be to apply compulsorily the treatment which Dr. Maier gives to poorer class women of Zurich with their consent. Public opinion in England will not easily be reconciled to this course, but if our over-population and unemployment continue, we may ultimately be driven to it.
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The Eugenic Problem in Great Britain. Nature 132, 540 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132540a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132540a0