Semi-weekly herald., 1912-11-25
REDUCING THE NUMBER OF
FEEBLE-MINDED

After four years investigation
among the population of England and
Ireland the royal commission COM
piled statistics which make it evident
that the feeble minded mothers of
Great Britain have proportionately
twice as many children as the normal.
Field workers in this country encoun-
ter a similar condition. The feeble
minded are multiplying at twice the
rate of the general population. This
is largely accounted for by the fact
that feeble minded men and women
are lacking in self control. The re-
suit of research work by the depart
ment of public charities in Philadel-
phia confirms the opinion that the
rate of propagation of the feeble
minded is far greater than that of the
normal. The birth-rate is not an ac-
curate index of permanent increase,
since the low mental or financial
| status of the parents lessons the chill
dren's chances of survival. The in
fant death-rate in the illegitimate
Kallikak line, for instance, was about
SIX times as great as in the legitimate
line.
Still, the fact that such defective
lines are able to increase at all and to
perpetuate themselves for generations
is sufficiently disquieting. 1t is
notorious that the offspring of feeble
minded parents are especially liable
to inherit the defective mentality.
According to Goddard, about 65 per
cent. of all the feeble minded owe
their condition to heredity. 1t thus
becomes apparent that the one great
problem in the prevention of feeble
mindedness is the prevention of re-
production by those who are thus af-
flicted
Many tentative experiments have
been made along the line of steriliza-
ton. Indiana, Washington, Califor-
mia, Connecticut, Nevada, Iowa, New
Jersey and New York have all passed
laws which provide for some form of
sterilization of feeble-minded and GER
tain criminal types. Pennsylvania is
prevented from having such law
only by the governors veto of the
bill. Kansas and Nebraska have both
made experiments with this method
of dealing with sexual offenders. For
political reasons both of these states
have had to abandon the practice at
least temporarily. The New Jersey
law, though far-reaching and care
fully planned to avoid abuse while
lending itself to the aid of scientific
research, has not been in effect long
enough to warrant conclusions as to
its outcome. Indiana has given the
sterilization plan the most thorough
trial of all. In that state the practice
of vasectomy on certain criminal types
has been legalized for the last seven
years. In the reformatory at .Jeffer-
sonville about three hundred men have
been operated on.
When the whole subject is viewed
from practical point of view the ar
guments for sterilization of the mem
tally defective seem greatly to out
weigh the sentimental reasons adj
vanced against it. Many inmates of
institutions for the feeble-minded
could be kept safely at their homes
and at least help to earn their own
living, were it not for the opportunity
to reproduce their own kind which
such liberty would give them.
Although segregation of this class
during the whole of the reproductive
period is effective in its results, it
carries with it financial burden
which seems unnecessarily large.
Considered in all its various aspects.
says the Journal of the American
Medical association, it would appear
hat the most practical plan for the
of the feeble minded
strains should judiciously combine the
Methods of segregation and steriliza-
ion.