THE MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 19388, 14 August 1928, Page 10

THE MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

CLASSES ON THE REGISTER. no. n. [By tlie Hon. W. H. Triggs, M.L.C.] I have mentioned that the Mental Defectives Bill provides that "epileptics" may be placed on the register. The Committee of Enquiry restricted the class to be registered to persons "afflicted with epilepsy, associated with automatism, or other condition rendering them especially liable to dangerous, immoral, or other anti-social manifestations, and in the case of juvenile epileptics the mere frequency of fits rendering them unsuitable for attendance at ordinary schools." Probably in practice the Eugenics Board would observe these restrictions. Of the danger to the community of the class of epileptics defined by the. Committee there is not the slightest doubt. Soqie of the most shocking crimes of murder and outrage have been perpetrated by epileptics while in a state of automatism-rthat. ia to say they were absolutely unconscious of what they were doing at the time and remembered nothing about it afterwafds. In what is known as "psychic epilepsy" the patient may be to all appearance, a normal person, may have none, of the. ordinary symptoms, associated with epilepsy—may never fall down in a fit for example—but may be seized with ungovernable attacks of passion without warning, and without I. any apparent reason, and may, in that condition commit any act of violence, and remember nothing of it afterwards. Clearly such persons should, for their own sakes as well as for the sake of society, be under careful treatment and supervision and there is a general consensus of medical opinion that they ought not to marry.

Social Defectives. The class of social defectives to be included in the register has proved to be extremely difficult to define in strict, legal language, although they are easy to distinguish in prac ce, and it is most Important they should be thev constitute perhaps the most dangerous menace of all from a social point of view. In the. English Act they are called '' Moral defectives, ' and defined as- "Persons who from an early age display some permanent _ mental defect, coupled with strjug, vicious, or enmmal propensities on which punishment has little or no. deterrent effect.. Dr. Gray's definition.is: "Persons in whose case there exists mental associated with or manifested by antisocial conduct, and who require State, supervision and control for their, protection, or for the • protection of others." The essential point is that they cannot be placed on. the register unless in the opinion of the expert on the clinic, and of the skilled psychiatrist on the Board, they are mental, defectives, dangerous to themselves or others, if not placed under supervision or control, and likely, by. reason of. their mental defect,, to. transmit antisocial tendencies to their offspring. Feeble-Mindedness and Crime.

It has already been shown that every mental defective is a potential criminal. ' Goddard, in . . .his remarkable Y?oric on ' 'Feeble-mindeaness: Its Causes ana Consequences," says that environment will ■ not of-itself enable all people to epcape criminality. Those who without: sufficient ■ intelligence to know right 'from wrong, .or those if they know it who have not sufficient will-power and 'judgment to make themselves do the "right arid flee the =wrong, will ever be a fertile source' of criminality. He estimates that 50' per cent, of the inmates of American prisons are feeble minded. He! adds: "Even if; a _ much smaller percentage itiMufficient for our argument that without question, one point of attack _ for th solution of the problem _ f is the: problem of f&ble-mindedness. He reminds ns how many of the crimes that are committed seem foolish and sillv Many of the "unaccountable crimes, both large and small are accounted for once it is that the criminal may Be mentally defective. He goes on to add: — The hereditary crimfnal passes out with the advent of feeble-mindedness into the P r . . ... It is hereditary feeblemindedness, not hereditary criminal--itv,>.that, accounts, for the condition. We have. /seen only the end-product and fail to recognise the character of the raw material." , . t One of the most valuable features or the new Bill is that, it that the Controller, of Prisons shall furnish information to the Board concerning anv prisoner who appears to be mentally defective so that he may be examined by a psychiatrist; and. also that if any Magistrate or Justice is of opinion that any person brought before him, charged with an offence, is a mentally defective person, he shall forthwith advise the chairman of th» Board of such opinion and the names j and circumstances of .^ e eonrcerhed,.,..' .... ........ ; ,-

Heredity and Environment.; I now' come to the much-debated question of heredity and environment;. The Commitee of Enquiry. went very carefully into this question, heard scientific witnesses on the subject, and the report states pretty fully j the arguments on both sides. The best modern work on the subject is "Heredity" by Professor J.' Arthur Thomson, M.A., LL.D., Regius" Professor of Natural Histbry : at the Aberdeen University, published in 1926. He is mach too cautious and conservative in his views from the point of view of the eugenists. But he says (p. 520), referring to the multiplication of the rela-. tively unfit under modern conditions, that it is impossible to ignore the seriousness of tne outlook. He agrees that, a laissez-faire attitude, as human society is constituted, is qxiite untenable. He says:—"Everyone agrees that there should be no breeding from epileptics, paralytics, lunatics, and so on," and he considers, there is "much to be said for restricting the reproduction of undesirables who fall back on the State for support, for some sort of marriage' tests, for developing a social prejudice against reproduction among the victims of markedly bad inheritance, for a fuller and deeper recognition of woman's rights both as to mating and maternity, for eugenic devices such as Galton has suggested, and so on." The Committee of Enquiry stressed the importance of environment in improving the' physical and moral condition of individuals; but-had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that "It has. been proved beyond question that if two feeble-minded persons marry they will most probably produce abun-. dant offspring of whom. all. may be subnormal and a large proportion will become a burden on tne State; and that if one such person is mated with a healthy individual an undue proportion of their children are likely to prove degenerate and defective, and the unsoundness will continue tojnake its appearance in succeeding generations." Goddard. from an intensive study of a large number of cases passing througu Vineland Training School, comes to a similar conclusion, and states that even the- apparently normal children born of parents, one of whom is of sound stock and the other feeble-minded, will be capable of transmitting feeble-minded-ness.

Evidence not to be Gainsaid. But it was riot necessary to rely on scientific theory. We had concrete evidence' that in this young w iJJ an original stock of finest quality, introduction of feeble-minded f' . > and their unrestricted had already lead to evils which were predicted by the late Dr. . in 1888, and wer© at an palling rate. l>r. MacGregor referred to the highly undesirable class of immigrant introduced during the Public Works "boom" of the early B > and stated that, already the population in point of Q OB * 1 V, , considerably deteriorated. He s ald t f ultimate cost of this degradcd ciass ot people to this country would De en<orm ous He gave an account of two families, their asylum history, and their cost to the country. That or one family was £6OO 12s, and that the other £3817 .Bs. A of Enquiry in their report gave six illustrative cases in which the. cost t the State ranges from £SOOO to £16,000. In one case, where the lather was in a home for aged people, an the mother was stated to be wealv "mentally and morally." the history was brought down to the second generation. The original couple had su. children (girls) and all turned out, badly. Between them these had < twenty-one children (most of . ® illegitimate) and all these children weie committed to the State m most cases shortly after birth. Already the cost to the State had been close on £w,uw, and, of course, here was the prohiability of the offspring of these children becoming a charge on the State. The environment in which all tnese cases were found was bad—m cases indescribably so; but it was clea that the feeble-mindedness produced a bad environment and not the environment the feeble-mindedness. Put any of these unfortunates into a WW home and leave them to themselves and 1 in a very short time the environment would be as bad as ever. Put them into an institution and try to educate them; they may be drilled into somewhat better habits, and in some cases taught to do some productive work, but the feeble-mindedness will remain and will be transplanted to their descendants.

Feeble-Mindedness and Genius. The idea that if you stopped any of these degehefate couples from breeding ybumight possibly be depriving the world of a genius is ridiculed by everybody who has really studied the subject. Goddard says that while it often is a simple step from insanity to genius in cases of hereditary feeblemindedness we are dealing with a mentality upon which it is impossible to graft any kind of genius Lothrop Stoddart says :—"Of course a considerable number of eminent men can be listed who unquestionably suffered from various neuropathic traits, but it was not these traits that made them eittihent; on the contrary- these we e handicaps. Somewhere back ip. their 911cestry a taint was introdured. into" a sound superior . strain and produced this disharmonic . combination of qualities.

Oaring for the Defectives. As regards the mental defectives already in the community the: effect of the Bill, if it is carried into operation, will be all for their benefit. Defective children in foul surroundings will be removed to a better environment and every effort will be made to train them to such useful work as they are capable of doing. Wherever possible they will be placed in : suitable employment, but many of- the worst cases will require institutional That it is desirable the multiplication of such cases should be checked as far as possible no one .who knows the sum of human wretchedness and misery they" represent, apart the burden • to' theState, can doubt for one moment. Th 6 Bill proposes to make the marriage of such persons illegal, and any person who has, or attempts to have,carnal knowledge.of any woman or girl- who is registered under the Apt, is guilty, -of- an indictable' offence, and if ■ this takes place through the wilful or negligent act or default of the parent or, guardian of the woman Qf .girl, snch parent or guardian will also be griilty of an indictable offence.

Social Work and After-care. < Dr. Gray, in bis report, rightly, at-] taohes great importance to the Social Service work,, which, is one of the most important parts of the scheme. It will be carried out by specially qualified women,, chosen largely for /their sympathy, common-sense, and knowledge of human nature.The duties of such a worker would include the following:— '

(1) She would maintain an intimate personal contact' with -t"he . par-, • ents of the children,.-visit their hbmes r and study- their. conditions, with a viewto considering • whether the child aftertraiping couldsafely return there;• c ' (2) She would keep a'list of all av&il- ' able foster-parents; ' • •; " 4 (3) She would- try to secure suitable r employment for such of the children as were on the eve of being. ' paroled from institutions, : and would see that they were fairly treated by employers; • (4): She would visit all feeble-minded, who were residing with foster-parents, at .home, and would report to the local clinic any. who were giving anxiety oh account of mental symptoms, sexual precocity, or other antisocial tendencies,.

I If the Board -thinks'it desirable in the public interest, it can authorise the sterilisation of any registered person if in special circumstances it thinks fit to do so. But this is not to. be. done i* the case of a minor except on the written application 'or with tne written approval of his father or mother or his guardians; and in:the case of on adiilt ! person, ; incapable -by reason- of mental deficiency, from, understanding tfhe iiatute and.consequences of tfa*, operation, authority to operation must be obtained from the: parent .or guardian, as in the 'casa.bfj a minor. In the case of other .adultsthe written consent of the patient' isnecessary.. Sterilisation might be carried out at the present time by any : qualified! medical , man without any fresh Act of Parliament under the conditions laid down. It is. not desirable, however, • that the Board should. take on such responsibility without | statutory authority, and ohe may feel ; sure that the power will be < exercised very cautiously until the wisdom and efficacy of the policy shall be' proved; by experience; Those critics who say; this .is only the "thin edge of thewedge,r and "the first step to comr | pulsory sterilisation" forget that this ' would necessitate an amendment of the 1 i Act which could not be carried unless it was demanded by a strong body of public opinion. Not the least benefit of the Act, in the writer's opinion, is, the impetus it would give to what might be called tho eugenic education of the people. If we are to avert the gradual deterioration of the race, it is not sufficient to confine our attention to the elimination 'of the mentally deficient, although , that is ■ highly important. This wider aspect of the question will, with'" the Editor's permission, bo dealt with in a concluding article.