BIRTH-CONTROL DANGER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 823, 18 November 1929, Page 9

BIRTH-CONTROL DANGER

EFFECT FEARED ON MINDS OF WOMEN MENTAL EXPERT’S VIEWS Times Cable. LONDON, Saturday. Sir Robert Armstrong Jones, the Lord Chancellor’s Visitor in Lunacy, an expert in mental diseases, has challenged arguments advanced by Mr. Harold Cox, editor of the "Edinburgh Review," urging wider facilities for birth control among the lower classes and the voluntary sterilisation of the unfit. “I know I am dropping a bomb," says Sir Robert. “If you are going to sterilise mental defectives why not criminals, drunkards and political apostates?" Mr. Cox's remarks were in the course of a lecture, over which Sir Robert presided. The latter maintains that large families are the greatest help, as the members assist one another. He doubts if there has been any increase in mental deficiency. It. has simply-been made more apparent, he thinks, by more careful iii* niosis Moreover, mental deficiency is not bound to be inherited. His practice has shown that the absence of children caused neurasthenia in married women, leading to insanity. If birthcontrol were instituted on a large scale there would be need for more mental hospitals for women.