The sexual question

by Auguste Forel

The pornographic dishes are often served up with a sentimental and moral sauce which naturally does not tend to hide the flavor of the meat—for then all its charm would be gone—on the contrary it increases its spicy quality by means of contrast, at the same time making the product more marketable; this hypocritical disguise giving it a certain varnish of propriety. The trick of clothing pornographic articles with the mantle of virtue may deceive the artless, and give the less artless excuse for buying them without putting themselves to any inconvenience. In such cases it is extremely difficult to act without injustice and without doing injury to art and science by vexatious measures. This requires much tact and rare perspicacity.

Other Sexual Misdemeanors.—Many sexual assaults are committed on the insane and feeble-minded, in the hope that they will not defend themselves and denounce the criminal. We have mentioned the case of inverts who become attendants in lunatic asylums in order to satisfy their appetites. Such crimes should be classed with those committed against minors. In the first place it is necessary to take into account the special dangers they present, and in the second place, the personality of the criminal, his capacity for repentance, improvement, and self-control.

Artificial Abortion.—It is a difficult question to decide whether a woman should have the right to dispose of the embryo she carries in her womb, and the duties of society with regard to this question. It is certainly the duty of society to protect the child as soon as it is born. In this case the laws cannot be too severe in protecting the child from unnatural parents, or from the "baby farmers," whose business is to get rid of the infants by starving them or exposing them to disease.

It is the same with analogous abuses which we have mentioned with regard to civil law. These crimes or misdemeanors very often result as much from the economic organization of our society, as from want of protection for infancy and girl-mothers, as well as from the shame with which the latter are branded by our hypocritical customs.

The question becomes more difficult with regard to the embryo before birth. Should the law punish artificial abortion? Opinions on this question vary. I have already said that in cases of rape, and forced pregnancy in general, the right to artificial abortion should be conceded to the woman. On the other hand, I think it should be prohibited on principle when the fecundating coitus has been voluntary on both sides, and when there is no medical reason for such a measure. In principle, the human embryo, when once conceived, should have the right to live. Birth is only an episode in its life. This generally takes place at the end of the ninth lunar month of pregnancy, but a child born at the seventh month is often viable. It is, therefore, arbitrary not to recognize the right of the embryo to live. On the contrary, the right that a woman has to dispose of her body would seem to outweigh this, when conception has been imposed on her by stratagem or violence. In fact, the right of the embryo to life should depend on the wish of the bearers of each of the two germs by which it is formed, at the moment of conception.

On the other hand, numerous exceptions to the above rule should be allowed, and doctors should not be too severe, for it would be for them to decide in most cases whether artificial abortion was licit or not. Some pregnancies are a veritable misfortune for the parents and offspring, when the bodily and mental health of the mother or child, or both of them, is in danger. When a lunatic or an idiot, married or not, makes a woman pregnant, artificial abortion should be allowed; also in all cases when an insane or epileptic woman becomes pregnant.

An analogous case is that where a drunkard renders his wife pregnant against her will, especially when he is intoxicated at the moment; for the offspring runs a great risk of blastophthoria.

It is needless to say that abortion should be permitted whenever pregnancy seriously endangers the life or health of the mother, or when a grave disease in the mother condemns the child to become an invalid. On the other hand, such indications should not be acted on too lightly; a rational limit is here a matter of practice and common sense, combined with medical science.

The Right to Live of Monsters, Idiots, or the Deformed.—The preceding remarks naturally lead us to the question whether children who are born invalids, deformed, or idiots, etc., should be necessarily condemned to live by the law, and whether special dispositions should not be made for such cases.

The obligation to preserve, often by means of all the resources of medical science, miserable creatures, born as cretins or idiots; children with hydrocephalus or microcephalus, without eyes or ears, or with atrophied genital organs, etc., is an atrocity sanctioned by the law. Would it not be better to allow these miserable beings to be suppressed by means of a painless narcosis, with the consent of the parents and after an expert medical opinion, instead of condemning them by law to a life of misery? Science has proved that every congenital malformation of the brain is as incurable as that of any other organ.