CONCEPTION CONTROL AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE NATION by FLORENCE E. BARRETT, C.B.E., M.D., M.S., B.Sc. Consulting Obstetric and Gynæcological Surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital. President of the Federation of Medical Women. With a Foreword by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. 1922 PREFACE This small book has been written in response to many requests for some statement regarding the individual and national effects of the widespread practice of conception control. It is not intended to give medical advice on the subject for, in my judgment, that is best given to the individual by his or her medical adviser, and will vary in different circumstances. The question as to whether control of conception shall or shall not be practised is a decision ethical and not medical in character when husband and wife are healthy, and in the last resort will be decided by the individual pair for themselves; but they will be wise to discuss the question with their medical attendant in order to realise all that is involved in their decision. Space forbids anything like a full discussion of the national issues, but that aspect of the subject demands quite as careful study as personal needs or desires. F.E.B. 31, DEVONSHIRE PLACE, W.1. September, 1922. FOREWORD The Archbishop of Canterbury allows me to use the following letter as a Foreword to this little book. DEAR LADY BARRETT, I have read with great interest the manuscript of your pamphlet. Very many of us who have daily to do with the problems and perplexities of our social life and to give counsel to the anxious or the penitent or the perturbed will thank you for these clear and cogent chapters. To arguments based on moral and religious principle you add the weight of ripe experience and of technical scientific knowledge. Your words will gain access to the commonsense of many who would perhaps regard the opinions of clergy as likely to be prejudiced or uninformed. I am of course not qualified to express an independent judgment upon the medical or physiological aspects of this delicate problem, but I desire on moral and religious as well as on social and national grounds to support your general conclusions, and to express the hope that your paper may have wide circulation among those who are giving attention to what is becoming an urgent question in thousands of English homes. I am, Yours very truly, RANDALL CANTUAR. LAMBETH PALACE, S.E. 3rd August, 1922. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF TO-DAY CHAPTER II THE DEMAND FOR KNOWLEDGE AND FROM WHOM TO OBTAIN IT CHAPTER III METHODS CHAPTER IV THE EFFECT OF WIDESPREAD CONCEPTION CONTROL ON NATIONAL EFFICIENCY SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF TO-DAY