Being Well-Born: An Introduction to EugenicsGuyer, Michael F. (Michael Frederic)
Philosophy
Being Well-Born: An Introduction to Eugenics
Guyer, Michael F. (Michael Frederic)
Eugenics; Genetics
=A Working Program.--=And now after reviewing at some length various
aspects of man's hereditary and congenital endowment, the important
question arises as to whether it is possible, with the knowledge at
present available, to go ahead with a practical program which will insure
to the child of the future its right of rights, that of _being well-born_.
When one considers the matter it is evident that much can be done at once.
Most of the needs set forth in the preceding paragraph can clearly be met
in a fair degree by instituting the procedures indicated.
One of the obvious duties in a restrictive way that confronts us right at
the start is the care and control of the feeble-minded and of the
defective delinquent in such a way as to prevent procreation. Much help
can be given also through intelligent agitation for the establishment of
colonies for epileptics and the higher grades of feeble-minded which can
be made in considerable measure self-supporting. A given colony must, of
course, be for one sex alone. Much can be done, furthermore, by putting
into operation, both in and out of institutions, effective systems of
registering births and deaths together with accompanying facts which may
prove of eugenical significance.
Again, we should more surely identify and exclude undesirable immigrants
and also undertake thoroughgoing investigations to determine which races
we can not profitably assimilate into our own blood.
Physicians should pay more attention to the hereditary and congenital
aspects of their cases and make it more a matter of conscience than they
do at present to advise patients with regard to marriage. Prenuptial
medical inspection should become the custom, if not by law at least as a
voluntary procedure. Every parent must come to realize the grave risk to
which he is subjecting his daughter if a guarantee of physical fitness,
even more than assurance of financial standing or social position, is not
forthcoming from her prospective mate.
Wholly apart from the field of heredity though in a realm intimately
concerned with the birthright of the child, much practical good can be
accomplished by pondering the facts and the fictions of prenatal influence
and in the light of the knowledge thus gained, seeing that while foolish
and unnecessary worries are abolished, the conditions of health, nutrition
and occupation surrounding the expectant mother are the best obtainable.
It is the sacred duty of every individual, moreover, to see that the
maximal possibilities of his own germ-plasm are not lowered by vicious or
unwholesome living.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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