We conclude, then, that laws forbidding cousin marriages are not desirable. Since it would be well to make an effort to increase the opportunities for further play of sexual selection, the lack of which is sometimes responsible for cousin marriages, consanguineous marriage is by no means to be indiscriminately indorsed. Still, if there are cases where it is eugenically injurious, there are also cases where its results are eugenically highly beneficial, as in families with no serious defects and with outstanding ability.
The laws prohibiting marriage between persons having no blood relationship but connected by marriage should all be repealed. The best-known English instance, which was eugenically very objectionable,—the prohibition of marriage between a man and his deceased wife's sister,—has fortunately been extirpated, but laws still exist, in some communities, prohibiting marriage between a man and his stepchild or stepparent, between a woman and her deceased husband's brother, and between the second husband or wife of a deceased aunt or uncle and the wife or husband of a deceased nephew or niece, etc.
The only other problem of restrictive eugenics which it seems necessary to consider is that offered by miscegenation. This will be considered in Chapters XIV and XV.
To sum up: we believe that there are urgent reasons for and no objections to preventing the reproduction of a number of persons in the United States, many of whom have already been recognized by society as being so anti-social or inferior as to need institutional care. Such restriction can best be enforced by effective segregation of the sexes, although there are cases where individuals might well be released and allowed full freedom, either "on parole," so to speak, or after having undergone a surgical operation which would prevent their reproduction.
Laws providing for sterilization, such as a dozen states now possess, are not framed with a knowledge of the needs of the case; but a properly drafted sterilization law to provide for cases not better treated by segregation is desirable. Segregation should be considered the main method.
It is practicable to place only minor restrictions on marriage, with a eugenic goal in view. A good banns law, however, could meet no objections and would yield valuable results. Limited age restrictions are proper.
Marriages of individuals whose families are marked by minor taints can not justify social interference; but an enlightened conscience and a eugenic point of view should lead every individual to make as good a choice as possible.
If a eugenically bad mating has been made, society should minimize as far as possible the injurious results, by means of provision for properly restricted divorce.
Consanguineous marriages in a degree no closer than that of first cousins, are neither to be condemned nor praised indiscriminately. Their desirability depends on the ancestry of the two persons involved; each case should therefore be treated on its own merits.