THE RATIONAL REMEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 213, 29 August 1908, Page 6

THE RATIONAL REMEDY.

IS IT JUSTIFIABLE? Wellington, August 25. One of the most striking passages ill the annual report on the mental hospitals of tin- Dominion, which was presented to Parliament to-dav. is supplied in the report furnished by Dr. Ileattie, medical superintendent of'(he Auckland Mental Hospital. In his report on tint institution lie puts forward an arg'.imeat in favor ol the sterilisation of certain inmates of mental hospitals, and gives an illustration in support of liiplea. In referring to the patients lu his institution, at the beginning of the year, he „ays, "a. sad case is that of a girl under 20 years of age and married, whose father committed suicide, who has one sister in the Te Oranga Home, and another who was twice an inmate here, and who a few months after her release married a gumdigger, and has since given birth to twins. The present i'imate will recover, and as she is married it is an easy task to forecast- the future. If sterilisation is not the rational !■- medy in such cases I know of no other. 1 am fully aware that such a. course of action is in opposition to present hitiuanilarianism, and is an interference will! the liberty of the individual, but hitlnanilarianism is sometimes sickly seutim.'iitalism, and the liberty of the individual too often means the liberty to work irreparable mischief. I trust that something may be done ultimately, short of radical measures, to lessen the inliow of hereditary eases'by the association, with that object in view, of .the menial hospital, medical superintendent, and the medical school inspectors. When medical school inspection becomes fully established, the children of insane and highly-neurotic parents must receive special consideration."