The Elements of Child-protection

by Sigmund Engel

The Interests of the Future Generation.—The attitude of our present legal system towards actions likely to be injurious to the interests of future generations is a quite erroneous one. We concern ourselves solely with the interests of the contemporary generation; the interests of future generations are left entirely to chance; it is perfectly obvious that whenever a conflict of interests arises, the well-being of our descendants is unhesitatingly sacrificed. In our present laws it is difficult to point to a single provision for the protection of subsequent generations against the result of the sexual irrationality and the excessive sexual egoism of our contemporaries.

Bodily injury of one human being by another is a punishable offence. But the man affected with alcoholism or syphilis who procreates a child incurs no punishment whatever, although the consequences of the latter’s action are far more serious. To-day hardly any attention is paid to the question of what qualities are desirable in the parents in order to ensure the procreation of offspring well equipped for a happy and useful life. In the breeding of plants and animals, definite rules are followed, in order to secure the progressive improvement of the species concerned. But who trouble themselves about conscious selection for the improvement of the human species?

The view will ultimately prevail that the strong only are of value to society, and that every weak member of the community involves a definite social loss. It will be generally understood that large families are not advantageous, inasmuch as it is not quantity but quality that really matters. The day will come in which fatherhood and motherhood will be permitted only to the strong, and in which every endeavour will be made to prevent the birth of diseased and weakly individuals. As far as the “protection” of a great many children is concerned, the method that will be adopted will be to prevent their ever coming into the world. In the future, we shall know better than we know to-day which children are competent to grow up into useful members of society; and those buds which fail to attain this standard will be pruned away.

Beyond question, it will not be long before it will be generally understood that the proper application of eugenist principles to the human species will be secured, not so much by coercion, as by enlightenment. But for this very reason it will become of enormous importance to popularise the elements of educational science and of the hygiene of childhood, to effect the sexual enlightenment of children and of adults, and to secure the diffusion of sound ethical ideas. It will be taught that actions injurious to the interests of future generations are immoral, and some of them will even be made punishable offences. Steps will also be taken to ensure as far as possible that only those individuals shall marry whose offspring may be expected to be healthy.

In regard to all these problems, the acquirements of medical science are of enormous importance; for it is upon the acquirements of positive science that legislation dealing with such matters must be based. Unfortunately, however, the medical science of our own day is not always in a position to give a decisive and satisfactory answer in respect of the various problems just stated; and suitable legislation on these matters must be deferred to the future, when guidance may be anticipated from the inevitable progress of medical science.

Inheritance and Education.—In human beings, as in other animals, an improvement in the inborn capacities is possible. At the present time we are content to take children as we find them, and we simply endeavour by education to make every child into a useful member of society. But only through influences affecting hereditary qualities can the material of future generations be improved, and a humanity be brought into being better equipped than we are for the tasks of civilisation. Enduring human progress can be effected only by the simultaneous study and application of the laws both of education and of heredity. As by selection the hereditary equipment is improved, the limits of what is attainable by means of education will also be extended.

Even to-day, heredity and education commonly co-operate in the same direction, for in most cases the two influences are exercised by the same personalities. Parents of fine quality tend to procreate children of like quality, and also to give these same children an exceptionally good upbringing; contrariwise, degenerate parents tend to procreate degenerate children, and to bring them up badly.

Nature of Education.—The inherited character of human beings is not a unitary whole, but consists of different parts. Unless this were so, man would speedily succumb in the struggle for existence; for it depends upon the circumstances in which he finds himself, which parts of his inherited character undergo a necessary development. Just as nature brings into existence an enormous number of living beings, and then, by the mechanism of the struggle for existence, selects for survival those individuals which are best adapted to the environmental conditions, so in the inherited human character there exist available for the influences of education thousands of rudimentary capacities, and it is the particular environmental conditions which determine which of these capacities are cultivated and developed, and which are allowed to undergo atrophy.

Among these environmental conditions are the deliberate processes of education, which also select certain capacities for special cultivation, and allow others to atrophy or disappear. The latter part of this process takes place in accordance with the natural law, that every organ which is left unused undergoes atrophy, and may even altogether disappear. The task of education does not presuppose any alteration in the inherited character. On the contrary, the educator utilises the existence of the various inherited characteristics in such a way that he makes those qualities he wishes to develop take the field against those he wishes to suppress.

The inherited character contains certain possibilities of development. If it were fixed and unalterable, education would be entirely unthinkable. In the practical work of education we have to reckon with the fact that there are present in every child certain developmental factors, constituting the pre-conditions of the development which that child will subsequently undergo; that in the course of growth the character undergoes extensive alterations; finally, also, that the child’s character is something very different from that of the adult. Education is thus seen to consist of the influences exerted upon the character by the application of certain external factors; it is a selection from the entire complex of inborn capacities and inborn tendencies.