72 RACE.1MPROVEMENT IN SWEDEN 



In the old marriage act of 1734 which was in force down to 1915 it was 

 expressly enacted that epilepsy was an impediment to marriage, but in prac* 

 tice such mental affections as entailed incapacity to enter into a legal agree* 

 ment, were also an impediment to marriage. On the other hand it was enacted 

 that incurably infectious disease* was sufficient ground for invalidating a marriage, 

 whereby in all likelihood venereal disease in an infectious stage was meant. 



In the meanwhile at the beginning of this century more and more voices 

 were raised emphasizing the duty of society to provide for the mental and bodily 

 health of the race, demanding legislative measures preventing the marriage of 

 persons who in medical and eugenical respects are not suitable for it. For this 

 purpose motions were raised which, among other things, insisted upon obligatory 

 medical examination before marriage was entered upon. These were rejected by 

 Parliament, but when the marriage law must be revised owing to other reasons, 

 the Faculty of Medicine in Uppsala was consulted respecting its opinion as to 

 what ought to be the ground for the new law from a medical point of view. 

 The opinion of the Faculty of Medicine, with which the Medical Board agreed 

 on the whole, can be looked upon as a good expression of the position taken 

 at that time (1911) by Swedish medical science towards eugenical questions. We 

 shall therefore give an account of what it chiefly contains. The Faculty pointed 

 out to begin with, that as the legislative measures, which from a medical direction 

 must be insisted on in regard to the eugenical importance of marriage, are in a 

 greater or less degree intended to reduce the already low percentage of marriages, 

 they must on that account be proposed with great care and restricted to fit the 

 circumstances where they are most needed. Great care is urged in taking measur* 

 es, both by the difficulties of applying them practically, as well as by the 

 possibility that they can be avoided by means of illegitimate sexual relations 

 when marriage is not allowed. In certain cases it might be made possible to 

 obtain a dispensation to marry, as in the case where there are already children 

 who could thus be made legitimate, and when from one or the other cause it is 

 quite certain that reproduction is precluded. 



The Faculty proposed that it should be enacted that the following might be 

 taken as forming an impediment to marriage: 1) falling sickness, when not caused 

 by external reasons, 2) mental disease and mental debility actually present, men* 

 tal disease in the past, not caused by external reasons, also mental and moral 

 defects in a severe degree from which specially great danger might be anticipated 

 for the mental development of the posterity, and, 3) venereal disease in an in* 

 fectious stage. In the meanwhile in the two first mentioned cases it ought to be 

 possible, after the presentation of a certificate from a qualified medical man to 

 obtain a dispensation in certain cases. Anyone who is, or can with reason be 

 suspected of being affected by any form of falling sickness, as also anyone who 

 has been mentally deranged or whom there is good reason to suspect of being 

 afflicted with mental disease, mental debility or any other psychical abnormality 

 of the kind just stated and also those who have been condemned for greater 

 crimes, for repeated offences or convicted of vagrancy, ought not to be allowed 

 to marry without the production of a medical certificate, accepted by the Med* 

 ical Board, showing that he must not be considered to be affected by any such 



