Birth control laws : $b shall we keep them, change them, or abolish themDennett, Mary Ware
History
Birth control laws : $b shall we keep them, change them, or abolish them
Dennett, Mary Ware
Birth control; Birth control -- Law and legislation -- United States
Dr. George Blumer, of New Haven, Conn.—“It is better to enlighten
people by education than by legislation. I do not feel as a matter of
principle that the regulation of birth control should be entirely in
the hands of physicians ... there are many cases where the problem is
not a medical one at all.”
Dr. Jerome Cook of St. Louis.—“No distinction should be made between
this and other forms of medical knowledge, and no restriction should
be placed upon the spread of knowledge....”
Dr. Alexander Forbes of Harvard Medical School.—“The one thing I
feel sure of is that the principle in the present law, classifying
contraceptive knowledge as obscenity, is essentially hypocritical and
unsound.”
Dr. A. B. Emmons 2nd, of Harvard Medical School.—“Education rather
than water-tight legislation. Censorship of manufactured articles.
A few good popular articles of sound advice and vigorous warning
against dangers and quacks by leading medical authorities is about
all that can be done. I believe in leading rather than prohibiting.”
Dr. Alma Arnold of New York.—“Enlightenment by education rather than
by new laws. We have too many laws now. Logic and education of the
individual must take the place of snoopery by appointed guardians.”
Dr. Charles S. Bacon of Chicago. “Any attempt to limit the teaching
of contraception to a class will be, I think, useless. Worthless
drugs and appliances will probably disappear in the course of
time, because of disappointments resulting from their use. If laws
regulating the sale of poisons do not suffice, they should be
amended.”
Dr. J. E. Wallin, Director of Clinic for Subnormal and Delinquent
Children, Miami University, Ohio.—“I am unalterably opposed to any
sort of monopoly limited to any particular type of practitioner ...
who would be in a position to extort unreasonable fees.”
Dr. B. S. Oppenheimer, of Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York.—“No
restrictive laws would work, and the education of the public by the
medical profession is the only way to get bad methods suppressed and
good ones adopted.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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