EUGENICS AND LEGISLATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1770, 7 June 1913, Page 4

EUGENICS AND LEGISLATION.

The care of the feeble-minded, one of the most difficult problems 'with which modern civilisation is faced, is just now receiving the attention of the British House of Commons, which, as stated in a cablegram published in Thursday's, issue, has agreed to the second reading of the 1 Mental Deficiency Bill. This mea- ! sure is of special interest, in view of the fact that one of its clauses makes it a criminal offence to marry a congenitally defective person, a provision which is strongly favoured by the advocates of eugenics. It also provides for the care of neglected persons, habitual inebriates, and those who may be a danger to the community; for the registration and supervision of feeble-minded people, and for. the maintenance of' such State institutions for their care as may be necessary. The measure was before the House of Commons last year, having passed its second reading on July 19 by 242 votes to 19. It was .then sent to a standing committee, where it met with considerable opposition, and on November 19 it was announced that the Government' could not promise to pass it that session, but that, with the amendments of the committee, it would be made the basis for legislation this year. The Bill has been adversely criticised in certain quarters, as was only to be expected. At' a recent Poor Law Conference in London, for instance, the Rev. H. Stanley argued that it was a disgrace to the country that they should be talking about segregating the feebleminded, and preventing parenthood among a section of the community; and Miss Emily C. Fortey declared that the statement that the feebleminded were increasing out of proportion to the rest of the population was in direct contradiction to evidence in the report of tho Lunacy Commissioners. Major Leonard Darwin (President of the Eugenics Education Society) took a different point of view. In a paper which he read before the conference he indicated that ho would lite more to be done than was at present contemplated by the Government, but thought that tho wisest policy for the moment was to endeavour to make sure of the passing of the Bill, hoping that later on, as knowledge increased, the methods of advance might be more rapid. _ There can be no doubt that tho opinion is growing that some steps ought to be taken to discourage the propagation of tho mentally unfit, but it is also recognised that the whole question must be handled with extreme, caution. .'The Royal Commission on Poor Laws issued a report in 1909, in which it was stated ■•hat, in 6pite of the enormous annual expenditure on poor relief, education, and public health, "we still have a vast army of persons quartered upon us unable • to support themselves, and an army which in numbers has recently shown signs of increase rather than decrease." Tho commissioners found that in one workhouse, out of 229 births in five years, in rather over three-quarters of the cases the mothers were mentally weak, and in most cases approaching the state of imbeciles. There must naturally be a large mortality among such children, and of those that are reared many will be feeble-minded, and many others will go to swell the ranks of the unemployable. These are very disquieting facts, but in view of the present uncertain state of scientific knowledge'on the problems connected with heredity, it would bo dangerous to hastily adopt extreme legislative measures. In fact, Mr. W. C. D. Whetham, a distinguished scientist, candidly admits in his Introduction to Eugenics that. only a very few definite results hav& been arrived at by scientific research, and, except in the case of the feeble-minded, "where State interference is glaringly overdue, probably in the case of hopeless habitual criminals, and possibly in the case of sufferers from certain types of blindness and deafmutism, there is no direction in which, as yet, general interference would be justified." The British Mental Deficiency Bill seems to be in most respects a moderate and carefully-considered measure, and if it becomes law it may reasonably be expected to do something, however small, to check that tendency to racial deterioration bo which many careful and competent observers have drawn public attention.