Physicians should pay more attention to the hereditary and congenital aspects of their cases and make it more a matter of conscience than they do at present to advise patients with regard to marriage. Prenuptial medical inspection should become the custom, if not by law at least as a voluntary procedure. Every parent must come to realize the grave risk to which he is subjecting his daughter if a guarantee of physical fitness, even more than assurance of financial standing or social position, is not forthcoming from her prospective mate.
Wholly apart from the field of heredity though in a realm intimately concerned with the birthright of the child, much practical good can be accomplished by pondering the facts and the fictions of prenatal influence and in the light of the knowledge thus gained, seeing that while foolish and unnecessary worries are abolished, the conditions of health, nutrition and occupation surrounding the expectant mother are the best obtainable. It is the sacred duty of every individual, moreover, to see that the maximal possibilities of his own germ-plasm are not lowered by vicious or unwholesome living.
As individuals we can cultivate a greater sense of responsibility regarding marriage and parenthood in those for whose training we are responsible. We can study this whole subject conscientiously, keep pace with new knowledge and see that other people are likewise informed. In showing an enlightened interest in the ideals of eugenics and a sympathetic approval of wholesome marriages, a sentiment toward parenthood will gradually arise which will make it seem more desirable to many worthy people than it does at present. If we are of good stock ourselves we should recognize that it is highly desirable that we give to the race at least four children. On the other hand, if we come from a strain which is eugenically undesirable we should with equal conscientiousness refrain from contributing to human misery. For where serious obstacles to a union exist, renunciation is certainly a higher manifestation of love than is consummation of a marriage which will result in untold misery to the object of the affections. As a matter of fact, with adequate preliminary knowledge as to what actually constitutes a serious drawback to marriage, where such really exists and is recognized by the associated individuals, love of the kind that leads to marriage is not likely to arise.
As has been suggested by various students of eugenics, it is even at present perhaps not infeasible for earnest individuals to start in a quiet way local centers for the keeping and filing of accurate records of their family traits for the future use of their descendants. Such groups, voluntary though they be, would soon acquire a degree of distinction that would make other people of good endowments wish to join in and go on record as eugenically desirable.
Lastly, it should not be forgotten that good traits are inherited as certainly as bad ones. Moreover, in the realm of human conduct, even though the fundamental features of behavior are based on an inherited organization, man is not always driven by an inexorable linkage of inherited neutral units into only one line of conduct, since more or less capacity for alternative action is also inherited. It is the personal duty of every member of society to aid in affording the opportunity and providing the proper stimuli to insure that out of the many possibilities of behavior which exist in the young at birth, those forms are realized which are best worth while to the individual and to society. And while we recognize that improved environment alone can not correct human deficiencies we must nevertheless not relax our efforts to get cleaner foods, cleaner surroundings, cleaner politics and cleaner hearts.
Why go on alleviating various kinds of misery that might equally well be prevented? When one squarely faces the issue, surely the absurdity of our present practises can not but be evident to even the most thoughtless.
Which Shall It Be?—As a matter of social evolution, human homes originated in the necessity of an abiding place for the nurture and training of the young past their first period of helplessness. Well in the foreground of the mental picture which arises when we hear the very word home, are children. What shall the home of the future be with regard to its most important assets, the children? Shall we as a people continue to be confronted at every turn by the dull countenance of the imbecile, the inevitable product of a bad parental mating; or the feeble body and the clouded intellect of the child sprung from a parentage of polluted blood; or the furtive cunning of the born criminal, the will-less mind of the bred degenerate, or the shiftless spawn of the pauper? Or shall it be a type with laughing face, with bounding muscles, with unclouded brain, overflowing with health and happiness—in short, the well-born child?
The answer is in our own hands. The fate of many future generations is ours to determine and we are false to our trusteeship if we evade the responsibility clearly laid before us. How conscientiously we heed known facts, how actively we acquaint ourselves with new facts, and how effectively we execute the obvious duties demanded by these facts, will give us the answer.
THE END