GENETICS AND EUGENICS 257 



vance notification of applications for marriage licenses as is provided 

 for by the California laws, and should contain provision for health 

 examinations as already enforced in Illinois. The latter practice 

 should be extended to include the examination of family histories. 



Many positive measures have been proposed for granting aid of 

 \^arious kinds to large families. At the present time most of these 

 proposals are impractical, but we might look forward to wage adjust- 

 ment to family size starting with government employees, and rental 

 rates of government-owned houses based on a fixed percentage of the 

 family income regardless of the size of the house required. 



It has been proposed that those who are clearly unworthy of parent- 

 hood should be segregated in colonies of their own sex. The expense 

 of this as well as the probability of many social and other problems 

 that would arise in such a situation challenges the wisdom of such a 

 measure beyond the degree it is now being practiced in our eleemosy- 

 nary and punitive institutions. 



Twenty-nine of our states have adopted laws providing for the 

 eugenic sterilization of such persons as those who have been committed 

 to sanitaria for mental cases because of an inheritable type of insanity 

 and who are to be returned to their families. A few states provide also 

 for such sterilization of habitual criminals and those who are clearly 

 feebleminded. Eugenic sterilization consists of vasectomy and sal- 

 pingectomy — operations that bring about sterility without interfering 

 with endocrine function or normal sexual reactions. Over twenty- 

 five thousand such sterilizations have been performed under the 

 present laws. 



It is evident from the data previously discussed that family limita- 

 tion is being practiced by the eugenic group. It is suggested by many 

 who are facing squarely the problems of racial welfare that those who 

 are mentally and in other ways far below the majority of our people 

 should have made available to themHhe means of similarly limiting 

 the sizes of their families. The number of clinics where such measures 

 are made available to persons who will make proper use of them al- 

 ready number in the hundreds. 



Some of these eugenic measures are questioned on the grounds that 

 they violate human rights. We should also be considerate of the rights 

 of the unborn. It is reasonable to say that every child that is to be 

 born into this world has : 



The right to he horn with a sound mind. 



