30 WHAT IS EUGENICS? 



trace our family histories far enough back into the past, we 

 should all find that we are descended from one or more 

 half-witted ancestors, or from some persons who certainly 

 ought not to have become parents. If the reforms here 

 advocated had been adopted in the past, these ancestors 

 of ours would not have married, and, in a sense, no one of us 

 would have come into existence. But the nation would 

 have continued to exist all the same. Moreover, its 

 citizens, being all without any defective ancestors, would, 

 in consequence, have given birth to eminent men more often 

 than at present. Here is a highly beneficial result to be 

 expected from the prevention of parenthood amongst 

 defective persons. 



There are two ways of acting when the aim is the pro- 

 duction of smaller famihes by persons of bad stock; and 

 these are persuasion and compulsion. Persuasion is always 

 to be preferred to compulsion, if the end desired can thus 

 be obtained. Let us, therefore, begin by considering what 

 can be done by persuasion. 



To ask a man not to marry, or, if he does marry, to have 

 no children, is to ask a great deal. But self-sacrifice is the 

 very foundation of our ideas of what is noble in human 

 conduct. If the world of the future would be benefited by 

 a man refraining from parenthood, surely it must be right 

 for him so to refrain. We should all do what we can to 

 help to ascertain when such conduct would be right ; and, 

 when right, to encourage those called on to make such 

 sacrifices to follow the dictates of their consciences. Those 

 who think that little good could be done by such persuasion 

 should, nevertheless, do all they can in this direction. It 

 can, however, hardly be doubted that, if these ideas as to 

 our duties were to become part of our everyday religious 

 thought, the conduct of many persons would thus be 

 affected. 



The first question to be answered is. Who should volun- 

 tarily refrain from parenthood ? In some cases there is no 

 doubt. For example, no one should have a child who is 

 suffering from one of those rare diseases or deformities, 



