(1) It is to be noted that some of the contentions advanced on each side apply to the different phases of the married life of the woman.
Thus the revulsion of feeling against the use of contraceptives is experienced chiefly by the woman who has had either no children or few children. On the other hand, the woman who has the greatest need for a knowledge of Birth Control is the one who has had many children and desiring no more would probably feel little or no aversion from taking precautions against conceiving them. It appears to the writer that there is no adequate objection to communicating to such a multiparous mother this much needed information.
The difficulty in the case of the newly-married woman is of another type. The discrepancy between the ages at which human beings reach sexual maturity and at which they find themselves capable of maintaining a family, raises a number of exceedingly difficult problems. Seeing that the sexual requirements of man constitute a factor varying very greatly from individual to individual, and to a large extent depending, as is now realized, upon a very complex balance of glandular functions, it is more difficult than most popular moralists seem to realize to lay down general rules applicable impartially to every body.
Questions such as the following are raised: Can it reasonably be expected of every man to live ten or more years of his sexually adult life in complete continence? If not, is it better for him to marry young and probably unequipped to support children, having remained continent till that time, or to marry later, probably better equipped financially to become a father, yet having had promiscuous experience of women before marriage? And if he does marry young, can he be expected to remain continent in his married life till he and his wife feel that they can satisfactorily maintain a family? If he finds he cannot do this, should he proceed to have children whom he cannot properly support, or is it better for the couple to overcome their dislike of contraceptives—a feeling which it is idle for advocates of Birth Control to ignore—and thus avoid having children till they are wanted? These are a few of the general questions which are raised in this connexion to which no comprehensive answer can possibly be given.
Much controversy has revolved round the question of the desirability of self-control as a means of regulating births, and of its universal practicability. It is here contended that where possible this is immeasurably the best means of regulating births. At the same time, it is futile to advance a counsel of such perfection and difficulty that a highly probable failure to observe it will be followed by socially disastrous results. Everyone would acknowledge that the Medical Officer of a military unit who refused to instruct the soldiers under his supervision in the precautions they should take against contracting venereal disease, on the high moral grounds that they should never expose themselves to such risk, would be carrying his idealism to socially harmful lengths. Yet it is a much more difficult task for two people in love with each other and living together in the intimacies of married life to exercise continuous self-denial over long periods extending to years, than it is for the soldier to abstain from occasional promiscuity. In both cases it is clear that the correct course is to start by putting the case for restraint as clearly and forcibly as possible, and then to explain what steps must be taken in the event of that restraint proving too great a task. In the Army and Navy such appeals, when tactfully made, have met with a response which justifies the view that, within limits, more can be done in this way than might be supposed. As a general rule, then, it would appear desirable that contraceptives should be used as little as possible, especially in the early years of married life.
It also seems to the writer that in the case of normal married people, too much has been made of the demoralizing effect of the ‘excessiveness’ of that indulgence which is supposed to be permitted by the practice of contraception and which forms the basis of the ‘moral’ objection advanced in this country. This argument frequently emanates from ecclesiastical sources, where knowledge of the sexual aspect of human nature as well as of the technical side of contraception is apt to be restricted and biassed. In effect, the man who is sufficiently provident and considerate of his wife to encourage the necessary precautions (which—a point too often ignored by prejudiced critics—from the immediately selfish point of view both parties would far sooner forego), is not the kind of man to indulge in reprehensible excesses. Actually, demoralization seems rather to be produced in those men who insist on gratifying themselves regardless of their means, or of the welfare of the children they so abundantly procreate, or of the feelings and health of their wives.
(2) The case of unmarried persons clearly falls into a different category. There can be little doubt that the publicity given to the subject of Birth Control has kindled the imagination of many young people and led to various transgressions. The requirement here is to discover a method by which at the same time this publicity may be diminished and information made selectively more available. Both these results could be achieved if the subject were taken up by the Ministry of Health, and facilities created for the appropriate giving of knowledge thereon by responsible qualified persons. By such means the particular advice suited to each individual case could be privately given, precisely where it is required, and steps might be taken to stop the journalistic broadcasting of information and discussion which has brought the subject into such discredit.
The effects of this measure would be comparable to the arrest of the literature upon the subject of venereal diseases, and to the reduction of their incidence that has been brought about by the institution of special departments for the treatment of these diseases in the large towns.
It is clear, however, that all arguments relating to the individual are limited in their appeal to those in whose minds the conception of morality is somehow related to that of individual harmony and happiness and to the ideal of the general good. To those for whom the word ‘morality’ has an ulterior meaning, unconnected with the affairs of this world and relevant, solely, to the destiny of the individual soul—I refer, here to those who enlist the ‘Will of God’ of which they are the self-constituted interpreters, on their side—no argument can be of any avail. Since the subject is thus removed from the sphere of practical controversy, no further discussion is possible, and the only thing to hope is that with the passage of time such persons will become less numerous.