TABOO AND GENETICS 251 



parents are unmarried has a right to the sur- 

 name of the father, and the right of inheritance 

 from a propertied father ; the court has full 

 power to clear up the paternity of the child ; 

 the man is held responsible for the child's sup- 

 port even if other men are known to have had 

 intercourse with the mother. In order to 

 discourage immorality in women for the purpose 

 of blackmaihng wealthy men, the mother is 

 also compelled to contribute to the child's 

 support, (i). 



No psychologist of discernment, in insisting 

 on eugenic standards rather than a marriage 

 certificate as the best criterion for parenthood 

 would encourage any tendency to promiscuous 

 mating. The individual suffering involved in 

 such a system of sexual relationships would be 

 too great to permit its universal adoption even 

 if it should be found to have no deleterious 

 social effects. But the very fact that transient 

 mating does involve so much human agony, 

 especially on the part of the woman, is all the 

 more reason why it is needless to add artificial 

 burdens to those already compelled by the very 

 nature of the emotional life. 



The study of child psychology, too, would 

 tend to discourage any general tendency to 

 temporary sexual relationships. Modern re- 

 search has shown that nothing is more necessary 

 for the normal development of the child's 



