The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of FactsSanger, Margaret
Science
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control; Eugenics
According to the last census, 1910, .914% of the total population, or
841,244 persons, were inmates of institutions in the anti-social and the
unfortunate classes in the U. S. Besides these persons who have been
committed to institutions, there are many others of equally unworthy
personality and hereditary qualities, who have, through the caprice of
circumstances never been committed to institutions. In so far as the
defective traits of the members of these varieties are inborn, they are
to be cut off only by cutting off the inheritance lines of the strains
that produce them. This is the natural outcome of an awakened social
conscience, which is in keeping, not only with humanitarianism, but with
law and order and national efficiency. Society must look upon germ-plasm
as belonging to Society, and not solely to the individual who carries
it. Humanitarianism demands that every individual born be given every
opportunity for decent and effective life that our civilization can
offer. Racial instinct demands that defectives shall not continue their
unworthy traits to menace Society. There appears to be no compatibility
between the two ideals and demands. P. 15–16.
_J. H. KELLOGG, LLD., M.D., Superintendent of Battle Creek Sanitarium,
Battle Creek, Mich._
A careful study of the returns of the Registrar General of England,
according to Dr. Tredgold, an eminent English authority shows that out
of every 1,000 children born to-day, as many infants die from “innate
defects of constitution” as 50 years ago, and this notwithstanding that
the total death rate of infants has been diminished nearly ⅓. The
increase of insanity, is cited by Dr. Tredgold, as another evidence of
race degeneracy. While the increase of the population of England and
Wales in 52 years has been 85.8%, the increase of the certified insane
has been 262.2%. At present there is one insane person to 275 of the
normal population of England and Wales. Tredgold shows that mental
unsoundness, lunacy, idiocy, imbecility and feeble-mindedness may be
traced to hereditary influence in 90% of the cases. Mr. David Heron and
others have shown that while there has been a marked decline in the
birth rate in the population in general, the diminution is almost
entirely confined to the healthy and thrifty class. In a section of
population numbering a million and a quarter persons, thrifty and
healthy artisans, the decline in the birth rate in 24 years, 1889—1904
was over 52%, or three times that in England and Wales as a whole. Study
of a large number of families of the working class of incompetent and
parasitic character found that the average number of children to the
family was 7.4, while in thrifty and competent working families, the
number was 3.7. In other words, the incompetent and defective classes
are multiplying much more rapidly than are the competent and efficient.
P. 440.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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