The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-MindednessGoddard, Henry Herbert
Science
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness
Goddard, Henry Herbert
Heredity, Human; Mental retardation; People with mental disabilities
Before considering any other method, the writer would insist that
segregation and colonization is not by any means as hopeless a plan as it
may seem to those who look only at the immediate increase in the tax rate.
If such colonies were provided in sufficient number to take care of all
the distinctly feeble-minded cases in the community, they would very
largely take the place of our present almshouses and prisons, and they
would greatly decrease the number in our insane hospitals. Such colonies
would save an annual loss in property and life, due to the action of these
irresponsible people, sufficient to nearly, or quite, offset the expense
of the new plant. Besides, if these feeble-minded children were early
selected and carefully trained, they would become more or less
self-supporting in their institutions, so that the expense of their
maintenance would be greatly reduced.
In addition to this, the number would be reduced, in a single generation,
from 300,000 (the estimated number in the United States) to 100,000, at
least,--and probably even lower. (We have found the hereditary factor in
65 per cent of cases; while others place it as high as 80 per cent.)
This is not the place for arguing the question or producing the statistics
to substantiate these statements. Suffice it to say that every institution
in the land has a certain proportion of inmates who not only earn their
own living, but some who could go out into the world and support
themselves, were it not for the terrible danger of procreation,--resulting
in our having not one person merely, but several to be cared for at the
expense of the State. These statements should be carefully considered and
investigated before any one takes the stand that segregation in colonies
and homes is impossible and unwise for the State.
The other method proposed of solving the problem is to take away from
these people the power of procreation. The earlier method proposed was
unsexing, asexualization, as it is sometimes called, or the removing, from
the male and female, the necessary organs for procreation. The operation
in the female is that of ovariectomy and in the male of castration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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