INHERITANCE IN MAN 325 



constitution often has in diagnosing his condition and in indicating an 

 advisable mode of treatment. 



To date, much of the actual attempt to apply genetic procedures to 

 race betterment has been of the sort known as negative eugenics, or the 

 attempt to limit the undue increase of clearly defective stocks. A number 

 of human qualities that are unquestionably undesirable in any individual 

 or member of society have been shown to be inherited. Among such 

 characters are certain forms of mental deficiency, various types of mental 

 derangement, and several forms of severe structural or physiological 

 deformity that condemn their possessors to feeble-mindedness, incurable 

 insanity, or completely disabling physical handicaps. The individual who 

 has inherited such defects not only constitutes a noncontributing burden 

 to society (and often to himself) but also carries a germ plasm that will 

 reproduce the same kind of unfortunate and unwanted individuals in the 

 next generation or that will contaminate any better germ plasm with 

 which it may be mixed. The fact that such defective individuals are often 

 incapable of the personal or social responsibility that would lead them 

 to refrain from reproduction places the responsibility upon society and the 

 state. 



Two possible methods of state control of defective potential parents 

 have been suggested and to some extent practiced. Defective individuals 

 who owe their condition to a defective germ plasm can be segregated 

 from any opportunity for mating, or such individuals can be made 

 permanently sterile by a surgical operation. The expense and difficulty 

 of segregation are so great that it is hardly practical, but modern surgical 

 techniques have perfected a relatively simple and safe operation that 

 produces complete sterility without interference with the normal sex 

 life of the individual. Here, of course, we encounter a number of legal, 

 political, and religious considerations that, whatever their validity from 

 biological point of view, must be taken into account in any practical 

 eugenics program. 



