HEREDITY DENIED BY BUDDHISTS 



Effects of Negative Selection in Oriental Countries 



O. F'. Cook 



Bureau Plant Industry U. S. Department of Aii^ricuUure 



AN IMPORTANT eugenic princi- 

 ple was stated by Dr. Alexander 

 Graham Bell in the Journal of 

 Heredity for November, 1920, under 

 the title "Is Race Suicide Possi-ble?" 

 No doubt there is more to be learned 

 before we shall ha\'e a full understand- 

 injj of the reactions of "negative selec- 

 tion" as Dr. Bell calls it — "A selection 

 that i)roduces the \er\- opposite of 

 that expected." But Dr. Bell has 

 pointed to .some of the effects of this 

 adxerse tendency, as it works on the 

 human race, and at the same time has 

 ur^ed a clearer recognition of one of 

 the basic needs in eui^jenic reform, over- 

 looked b\- main' professing; eugenists — 

 the need of enlisting the interest of all 

 forward-minded people in the biological 

 facts of heredity-, and in the study of 

 such facts in their relations to human 

 welfare. The practical objects of eugen- 

 ics are to be gained, if at all, by estab- 

 lishing more normal, biological ideals of 

 life and responsibility in place of the 

 artificial or sui^erslitious notions that 

 so often have turned aside the course 

 of development in the past, e\en among 

 the most advanced nations. 



The negative side of eugenics, as a 

 way of escaping diseases and defects, 

 is interesting to students of special 

 pathological problems, but not inspir- 

 ing or even attractive to the public at 

 large. Secondary measures for restrict- 

 ing the multij^lication of abnormal 

 people may be de\eloped to a\'oid the 

 difticultv' and exi)ense of caring for 

 large numbers of defectives and crimi- 

 nals, l)ut the real foimdation of eugen- 

 ics must be i)uilt in the consciousness 

 of intelligent, riglit-iuindefl people. Of 

 all the imi)<.'diments and setbacks in 

 human progress, the misguided self- 

 sacrifices of tho.se who have generous 



intentions for humanity and sensitive 

 feelings of personal responsibility are 

 the most to be regretted. 



over-population the oriental 

 problem 



Biology is a new science, not only in 

 the sense of disco\ering new facts, but 

 in reaching new points of view. Not 

 only does the history of European 

 peoples abound in examples of such 

 "negative selection" as Dr. Bell de- 

 scribes, but the same principle is 

 illustrated on a tremendous scale 

 among the crowded populations of the 

 Far East. The fact is most significant 

 that celibacy has been preached for the 

 longest time and most extensively 

 practiced in those countries that never- 

 theless have developed the largest and 

 most congested populations, to an 

 extent that the rest of the world feels 

 menaced by an "Oriental Problem." 

 l\vo-thirds of the human race live in 

 the Orient and are dominated b\- primi- 

 tive beliefs that conflict, both in theory 

 and in practice, with modern ideas of 

 heredit>-. 



The masses of oriental population 

 are not affected by the "higher tenets" 

 of Buddhism, that call for complete 

 renunciation of life. The primitive 

 "nature religions of Asia" ha\e sur- 

 vived, with their worship of fecundity 

 and reciuirement of male children to 

 perform ancestral rites, while Budd- 

 hism has decayed in spite of its lofty 

 ideal and all-embracing sympathy. 

 The Buddhist theory of salvation by 

 race suicide did not work out in the 

 wa\- that was expected. The history of 

 Buddhism ma\' be an answer to Dr. 

 Bi-ll's ([uestion, "Is Race Suicide Pos- 

 sible:-'" 



474 



