The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1913-10-16
SEES DANGER IN
FREAK STATUTES
New EugeniC Laws P0riIOuS,
Says Professor Benson.
ZEAL OFTEN MISDIRECTED.

Tendency of the Times Threatens Well
Being of Race Owing to Present Lack
of knowledge of Genetio Science.
Legislation Really a Menace Not a
Protection to Society.
Serious differences have arisen be-
tween the medical profession and the
legislators of various states as to the
Interpretation of practical" eugenics.
In fact. public expression of medical
opinion has reached a point where it
is charged that legislators who seek to
put society on a eugenic basis do not
know what they are doing. This opin-
ion is based on an examinat ton of re-
Gently enacted statutes governing the
question.
The New York Medical Journal says
editorially in its current issue under
the heading "Misdirected Eugenics."
after referring briefly to an editorial
article on the same subject printed pre-
viously:
The untimely expression OF so called
''pra ctical" eugenics In terms of stat
utes by legislators who know little or
nothing of the subject even though in
spired by breeders associations. Stats
ticians and enthusiasts, was bound to
awaken a reaction among those who
habitually consider all sides of a sub
ject particularly when hardships are
to be inflicted upon human society,
good as the motive may be.
New Trend of Thought.
These are beginning to urge that
sickly offspring from sound parents
and sound children from ailing parents
are not uncommon; that genius is not
Incompatible with certain affections
witness the Darwin and many other
family records; that homeopathic off
spring by no means always results
from a union in which one of the par
ents suffered from neurosis; that
many who at one time suffered from
diseases now under the ban in many
states and had been cured had normal
children; that several of these dis
eases are increasingly yielding to our
therapeutic measures. etc. Right or
wrong. these criticisms illustrate the
trend of mature analysis.
Suggestive in this connection are the
remarks of Professor Benson at the
recent international congress and
which fortunately have been widely
disseminated through the lay press, Il
should be sorry" said this distinguish
ed investigator, ito see adopted the
violent methods put to use in some
parts of the United States 1t is one
thing to check the reproduction of
hopeless detectives. but another to or
ganize wholesale tampering with the
structure of the population. such as
will follow If any marriage not re-
garded by officials as eugenic is liable
to prohibition.
Nothing yet ascertained by genetic
science justifies such course, and we
may well wonder how genius and the
arts will fare in community con-
structcd according to the ideas of such
legislators as we are told propose this
measure in Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey, to which we might add several
other states Legislative tyranny and
its handmaiden. brutality are increas-
ingly holding sway under the guise of
applied eugenics.
Outlook Not Promising.
"The outlook is not promising one.
As a result of misdirected-though
well meant-laws large proportion
of our younger population will be re-
duced, as far as marriage Is concern
ed. to a level approximating that OF
the leper IT, when seeking the holy
bonds of matrimony. they answer
truthfully all questions concerning
their physical condition.
But in many instances they will
swear falsely: in others the truth will
be told and marriage prevented or de
layed: in others. still. common law
wives will become as numerous as in
those European countries In which Of
fetal red tape converts legitimate I'M
ions into an ordeal In the end the
true aim Of enforced eugenics will
have been thwarted: the birth of phys
lcally and mentally handicapped chill
1ren viii not have been reduced: they
will simply have received the addi-
tional brand of illegitimacy.
"It is to be hoped that many states
will revise their marriage laws in
such manner as to meet the demands
Of equity to all. while efficiently pro-
tecting the innocent. particularly the
bride to be and her offspring"