250 TABOO AND GENETICS 



members shall be those to carry on the repro- 

 ductive functions. Therefore from the social 

 viewpoint, it is quite justified in setting up the 

 machinery of social approval and in establishing 

 emotional attitudes by this means that will 

 insure that this takes place. On the other hand, 

 it may be that the individuals who will be thus 

 coerced will be as rebellious against new forms 

 of social control as they are restless under the 

 present methods of restraint. 



If we free ourselves from a manner of think- 

 ing induced by inhibitions developed through 

 ages of taboo control, and look at the problem 

 rationally, we must admit that the chief interest 

 of society would be in the eugenic value of the 

 children born into it. At the present time, 

 however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon 

 the manner of birth, that is, the principal concern 

 is to have the parents married in the customary 

 orthodox fashion. Only in view of the neces- 

 sities of the recent war have the European nations 

 been forced to wipe out the stain of illegitimacy, 

 and in America we are still bhnd to this necessity. 

 Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such 

 minds as Ellen Key's, was roused to this incon- 

 sistency in the mores without external pressure, 

 and enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy 

 which may well serve as a model to the whole 

 world. The main points of the Norwegian 

 Castberg bill are as follows : The child whose 



