The sexual question

by Auguste Forel

At the present time, in many countries, the existing laws can be utilized to form marriage contracts stipulating separation of property, the right of each of the conjoints to the produce of his or her work, as well as certain reciprocal rights and duties between the parents and children. Matters can thus be arranged so as to correct more or less the defects of the law.

Marriage of Inverts.—A peculiar and characteristic phenomenon is the ardent desire of many sexual perverts, especially inverts, to become secretly engaged or married to the abnormal homosexual object of their love. It is needless to say that there can be no question of legal regulation of such pathological marriages. But the law may ignore them when they do no harm to any one, and regard them as private affairs, especially when they prevent much worse evils, such as the marriage of an invert to a normal individual.

Civil Rights of Children. Matriarchism.—As we have already said, it is the children who constitute the real phylogenetic and psychological bonds in marriage and the family, bonds which are deeply rooted in human nature. This is so true that among many savage peoples, if not in most, marriage is not considered legal as long as it is sterile. Even among civilized people sterile women are generally regarded as of less value. We may, therefore, regard the article in the Code Napoleon which forbids inquiry into paternity as an unnatural measure, or as a monstrosity of civil law.

Two human beings who procreate others contract common duties and responsibility of the highest importance. They are, perhaps, the highest social duties that man can assume. Is it not then infamous and unnatural to legally liberate one only of the procreators, the man, from all his responsibilities, simply because certain religious or civil formalities were omitted before procreation?

Is the man less guilty than the woman in procreation apart from marriage, if we can use the term guilt in such cases? Is it not a ridiculous and cruel irony to call natural children those born apart from marriage? Perhaps legitimate children are supernatural, or unnatural! Is it not infamous to brand with the seal of shame, even before their birth, poor illegitimate children, and to confirm this indignity by making them bear their mother's name instead of their father's?

The most elementary natural law exacts that all children, whether "legitimate" or "illegitimate," should have the same social rights, and that they should bear either the name of their real father or that of their mother; the latter denomination would be the more natural and logical. Denomination by the maternal line corresponds to the system of matriarchism (Chapters VI and XIX), which is often met with among savage races, and which is more just and leads to less abuse than patriarchism. Moreover, when women shall have obtained their proper rights, there will be an end of the exclusive authority of one of the conjoints in marriage.

Equality in the rights of the two sexes will naturally lead to denomination in the maternal line, for reasons of simplicity, the mother being more closely related to the child than the father. Maternity may, no doubt, be sometimes uncertain, as in the case of foundlings or changelings, but on the whole it is infinitely more easy to establish than paternity. It is sufficient for the mother to have sexual connection with two men at the time of conception to render paternity doubtful. Again, the mother has a number of pains, cares and dangers to undergo in the course of the procreation and education of children, which the father escapes. Nature thus gives the mother the right to give her name to the family. Our legislation is unfortunately far from recognizing such natural right. We may nevertheless form a primary proposition, because in my opinion its recognition would avoid much complicated litigation:

In nature, whenever the offspring of an animal have a protracted and dependent infancy, it is the duty of the parents to nourish them and bring them up. To allow human parents to dispense with this duty, on the grounds of badly constructed and unnatural social theories, is to encourage promiscuity, and consequently degeneration of society. It is easy to change social customs which are only based on artificial dogmas sanctioned by tradition, fashion and habit, whether they are of a religious nature or otherwise. But a social organization can never violate with impunity the true laws of human nature which are deeply rooted in our phylogenetic instincts, without disastrous effects.

In Chapters VI and VII we have given irrefutable proof that family life and the sentiments of sympathy between husband and wife, parents and children, constitute the phylogenetic basis of the sexual relations of humanity. Whatever may be the egoistic polygamous instincts of man, we can affirm that a natural and true monogamy constitutes the highest and best form of his sexual relations and of his love. No doubt there are many exceptions which must be taken into account. It is absurd to shut our eyes to the fact that our degenerate social customs have created unnatural circumstances in which parents behave shamefully toward their children, exploiting them, training them systematically to mendacity, prostitution and crime, or else ill-treating them. We even see unnatural parents, to save legal consequences, get rid of children who inconvenience them by the aid of slow and coldly calculated martyrdom, which leads them to certain death. It is, therefore, necessary to establish special legal provision for all these exceptional cases, to protect children against the power of unworthy parents and all forms of abuse.

I must here draw attention to the impulse which has recently been given to Austrian legislation on the protection of children, by Lydia von Wolfring. The State brings up, in philanthropic institutions, children who have been maltreated, neglected or abandoned, after removal from their unworthy parents, but without relieving the latter of their duty in providing nourishment. According to Miss Wolfring's system, they are cared for by honest couples without children who wish for them, under the supervision of the aforesaid institutions. In this way the children enjoy family life.