Eugenics and Genetics 
be infertile and should do something if on any particular occa- 
sion they wished to become fertile. If such a method were 
available, how much trouble would it cause in a community 
once the idea had penetrated? I think that most of the impulse 
to have children is a cultural one, built up by the kind of 
stories you read, the kind of pictures you see; I do not think it is 
a basic impulse at all. The impulse is sexual and that is the 
object people are pursuing—the children are inadvertent. 
Coon: I think that they want both sexual pleasure and child- 
ren. This business of women wanting to have children can 
become overpowering; I think there is a hormonal basis for 
that. I do not believe that the reason is purely social. This 
impulse is generally more important to the woman than to the 
man, but it can be very important to a man, too. 
Comfort: May I take issue with Pirie? He says that people 
do not have the right to produce children. I would think that 
it is more true to say that whether people have the right to 
produce children depends on the circumstances. What I am 
sure of is that no other persons have the right to prevent them, 
which is rather a different matter. Hearing Crick speak 
reminded me of a calendar which you can see in workshops in 
the north of England representing a very male bolt pursuing a 
very female nut which is remarking to him “‘Not without a 
washer!” It is open to the female to say “‘not without a 
washer”’—the reference is to a wedding ring, no doubt—but 
not to the government. I personally feel that even in circum- 
stances where it would obviously not be a good idea to have 
too many children, we should be obliged to foster resistance to 
any governmental attempts to dictate whether we should or 
should not have children or which of us should do so. 
Trowell: I think the traditional Christian ethics give one 
clear guidance on these matters; they stress the importance of 
the family group, physically and in every other sense. If one 
rejects these ethics, as many have done, then I think one must 
question whether a woman has the right to choose the inheri- 
tance of her child. On a purely humanistic basis are we not 
designing for the future of the race? We may have to say that a 
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