IMPROVING THE HUMAN RACE

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 8 October 1901, Page 3

IMPROVING THE HUMAN RACE

To perfect the human race, a doctor proposes (says an English paper) to kill the weak, build up the strong, regulate marriage according to hygiene, educate the matrimonially inclined, abolish the selfsupporting woman. These are the steps, in the opinion of a certain Dr. Denison, to bring the human race to perfection, or near to it But here stands the most notable plank in the Denison platform :— *■ Possible limited use by the State of painless death, without the knowledge of dying, in order to rid society of the useless and harmful lives,” Dr Denison censures his profession for so advancing 'in the healing art as to prolong feeble lives, suspend the law “of natural selection and permit the weak to propagate their kind.” He thinks we are getting to be so very civilised and intelligent that we are in danger of losing health. Too much mental development, he thinks, injures the physical powers and favours sterility, fcso we must refrain from much further progress along this line. Then, too, the self-supporting woman must go, because the work she is doing is unfitting her for motherhood.