The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-11-11
SHOULD NOT MARRY.
A Lethal Chamber for the Unfit.

(From the Humanitarian, by "S.D
Itisa well-es' ablshed fact thata vast
amount of the disease, defOrmity, suf-
fering and crime in the world is the
result of deliberate propagation. With
us, every one except the vacuOus idiot
and the raving maniac has legal
right to become parent, no matter
how he or she may be diseased or de-
formed in body or mind. The epilep.
tic, the imbecile, the drunkard, the
cauceroua, the blind, the consumptive
the dumb and the deformed, together
with the melancholic. maniac, would
be suicide, and criminal of yesterday,
are every day married and given in
marriage aud the result is an ever-in-
creasing annual crop of creatures, So
diseased, taunted aud defnrmed, ply
sicaIly, mentally and morally, that
they could not exist without the aid OF
others.
No one denies this. 1t is admitted
on all hands that the bulk of the con-
stitulional disease met with is the re-
suit Of tarily-transmitted predis-
position. Scientific observers at home
and abroad are agreed that at least 50
per cent. of the suffering ut present
caus d 10y insanity and 0Iher nervous
diseases, by cancer, epilepsy, idicocy,
drunkenness, consumption, scrofula,
and many other diseases, might be got
rid of in the next generation by for
bidding the right Of procrealion to the
obviously unfit in this. And yet no
legislator can be found with the moral
courage To champion the question.
Surely the State could not be accus-
ell of over-stepping its right if it de-
or ill.developed as to preclude the epossi-
bility of their begetting desirable ad-
ditions to the community, should be
denied the right TO essay the expert
ment. What is there outrageous in this
proposition? Could it be honestly
called harsh or unjust if the man or
woman who is an imbecile, who had
been il sane two or three times, who is
hopelessly phthisical or cancerous or
scrofulous, who is confirmed epileptic
drunkard or criminal, were denied the
right to beget his or her kind? TO my
mind such course would he both just
and kind, not only to the generation to
come but to the cOerced ones them
selves. 1t is too much to expect such
weak-willed creatures to govern their
passions and deny themselves the fleet
ing pleasure their indulgence brings.
A large number of them are not sutfi-
GENTLY intelligent to appreciate to the
full the gravity of their action, and
these must be restrained, if they are to
be restrained, by force. Others are not
sufficiently educated to appreciate the
crime they are committing Nature but
we must not expect much from edu-
calion, for there is nothing in our eX-
perience to lead us to believe that were
they educated they would act differ
emily. In this particular field Of cruel
selfishness, the rich and the educated
are as great offenders as the poor snd
the ignorant. Coercion, then, and
only coercion, is to be looked to as the
cure and whether it is to take the
form of isolation or sterilization is the
only point to be settled.
But some persons whose experience
has been particularly happy may think
that the evil is not so great as nave
hinted at, and that there is nothing tc
Justify such interference with the free
dom of the subject. For the benefit o.
such persons, let lie give a few in
stances of families such as L refer to-
Here is one. | know a woman ageC
thirty-five years. She has been an In
mate of lunatic asylum on six differ