258 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



where a sharp change indicating where the normal ceases 

 and the abnormal begins. Shall we sterilize or forbid mar- 

 riage to all children whose mental development is retarded 

 as much as one year? That would include 38 per cent of all 

 children, and one of yours, legislator! Shall the limit be 

 two years of retardation? That would include 18 per cent 

 of the children. Shall the limit be three years? That will 

 still be over 8 per cent — full one-twelfth of the population 

 to be sterile. Is it not reckless to pass such serious legis- 

 lation in such loose terms? 



Third, have we good ground for denying marriage, gener- 

 ally and under all circumstances, to persons who as school 

 children were even four years behind their fellows? Is it 

 certain that the progeny of such a person will be four years 

 older than their classmates at school, or three years, or two 

 years or even one year? Is it desirable to encourage non-legal 

 and irregular unions to sustain a law passed without inquiry 

 and based on no certain knowledge? Oh, fie, on legislators 

 who spend thousands of dollars on drastic action and refuse 

 a dollar for an inquiry as to the desirability of such action! 



Fourth, even if it were desirable to prevent procreation of 

 feeble-minded males of a certain grade, is it certain that 

 vasectomy is to be preferred to castration? It is urged as 

 one of the advantages of vasectomy that it does not inter- 

 fere with desire nor its gratification but only with paternity. 

 But is it a good thing to relieve the sexual act of that respon- 

 sibility that it ought to carry and of which it has hitherto 

 not been entirely free? Is not many a man restrained from 

 licentiousness by recognizing the responsibility of possible 

 parentage? Is not the shame of illicit parentage the fortress 

 of female chastity? Is there any danger that the persons 

 operated upon shall become a peculiar menace to the com- 

 munity through unrestrained dissemination of venereal 

 disease? Will the frequency of the crime of rape be dimin- 



