Searchlights on Health: The Science of EugenicsJefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Philosophy
Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
Jefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage; Medicine, Popular; Sexual ethics
1. LESSENING PAUPERISM.--Many of the agencies for lessening pauperism
are afraid of tracing back its growth to the frequency of births under
wretched conditions. One begins to question whether after all sweet
charity or dignified philanthropy has not acted with an unwise
reticence. Among the problems which defy practical handling this is
the most complicated. The pauperism which arises from marriage is the
result of the worst elements of character legalized. In America,
where the boundaries of wedlock are practically boundless, it is
not desirable, even were it possible, that the state should regulate
marriage much further than it now does; therefore must the sociologist
turn for aid to society in his struggle with pauperism.
2. RIGHT PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS OF BIRTH.--Society should
insist upon the right spiritual and physical conditions for birth.
It should be considered more than "a pity" when another child is born
into a home too poor to receive it. The underlying selfishness of such
an event should be recognized, for it brings motherhood under wrong
conditions of health and money. Instead of each birth being the result
of mature consideration and hallowed loves children are too often born
as animals are born. To be sure the child has a father whom he can
call by name. Better that there had never been a child.
3. WRONG RESULTS.--No one hesitates to declare that if is want of
self-respect and morality which brings wrong results outside of
marriage, but it is also the want of them which begets evil inside the
marriage relation. Though there is nothing more difficult than to
find the equilibrium between self-respect and self-sacrifice, yet on
success in finding it depends individual and national preservation.
The fact of being wife and mother or husband and father should imply
dignity and joyousness, no matter how humble the home.
4. DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AMONGST PHYSICIANS.--In regard to teaching,
the difficulties are great. As soon as one advances beyond the
simplest subjects of hygiene, one is met with the difference of
opinions among physicians. When each one has a different way of making
a mustard plaster, no wonder that each has his own notions about
everything else. One doctor recommends frequent births, another
advises against them.
5. DIFFERENT NATURES.--If physiological facts are taught to a large
class, there are sure to be some in it whose impressionable natures
are excited by too much plain speaking, while there are others who
need the most open teaching in order to gain any benefit. Talks to a
few persons generally are wiser than popular lectures. Especially are
talks needed by mothers and unmothered girls who come from everywhere
to the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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