Our whole philosophy is, in fact, based upon
the fundamental assumption that man is a self-conscious, self-governing
creature, that he should not be treated as a domestic animal; that he
must be left free, at least within certain wide limits, to follow his
own wishes in the matter of mating and in the procreation of children.
Nor do we believe that the community could or should send to the
lethal chamber the defective progeny resulting from irresponsible and
unintelligent breeding.
But modern society, which has respected the personal liberty of the
individual only in regard to the unrestricted and irresponsible bringing
into the world of filth and poverty an overcrowding procession of
infants foredoomed to death or hereditable disease, is now confronted
with the problem of protecting itself and its future generations
against the inevitable consequences of this long-practised policy of
LAISSER-FAIRE.
The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced
immediately. Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary
type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the
reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile
children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives. The
male defectives are no less dangerous. Segregation carried out for one
or two generations would give us only partial control of the problem.
Moreover, when we realize that each feeble-minded person is a potential
source of an endless progeny of defect, we prefer the policy of
immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely
prohibited to the feeble-minded.
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