STERILISATION OF DEGENERATES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21085, 9 February 1934, Page 14

STERILISATION OF DEGENERATES

TO THE EDITOR Or TDK P**SS. Sir,-—Regarding problems of the ''degenerates," your correspondent "Thorough" has become even more deplorable in his arguments. For when a person, foolishly asserts that he is not interested in the psychological effects upon the subject in relation to sterilisation, then he has lost every shred of right to offer any kind of sensible argument upon the whole subject ot degeneracy. Indeed the malice whereby your correspondent pursues the allegedly "degenerate" is, alas, only too apparent in this senseless agitation for sterilisation at all costs. Allow me to inform "Thorough" that even when degenerates have been caught in "degenerate and unspeakable practices," sterilisation is the last thing in the world to act as a "cure." Indeed all the scientific study I have yet made of the operation convinces me that the unspeakable practices are transformed into something even more hideous. Likewise, "Thorough" is singularly unfortunate in his reference to the Roman Catholic Church. And in such, displays his hopeless ignorance of the whole subject. For although I am not a member of that church, I do know that the Roman Catholic hierarchy tought tooth and nail against all forms of sex mutilations. Indeed it is to the everlasting honour of Pope Leo XIII. that he stamped out one of its most repulsive and barbarous forms. The message alleged to have come from the Church is, I think, a case of misplaced authority of a garbled cable. Yet it well illustrates how such a message can be the stimulation for malice in the minds of the unwary and misinformed. In this respect I am reminded of the act of official tyranny which cast me into the psycopathic hospital in Chicago in 1921; and thence to the Elgin State Hospital as a "degenerate"—for no other reason than that I had temporarily lost my power of speech. For this, the New Zealand Pensions Department was forced to pay me full pension for five months, and alsd "medical" expenses, which I did not obtain in attention. Again, your correspondent asks what is my remedy? Now surely if he had been a reader and a student he need not have asked such a superfluous question. He would know that for the last 10 years I have been contributing letters to various New Zealand papers upon the allied subjects of human morbidity and pathology in

this country. • For 10 years I have been labouring to educate people in these questions; collecting data and passing it on. For 10 years I have agitated lor "Care by Prevention—Prevent by Education." And now, because there is such painfully apparent need in this direction I am going to supply some education. To begin with, what causes "degenerates? Well, as I mentioned in my former letter, degeneracy does not concern one or one pair of glands only; but may cover a variety of defects all through the anatomy. There may be, for instance, a lack or an excess ol function in the thyroid, or in the t'nymers; it may be in the pituitary; it may be in the adrenals: or there may be only a tumour on one ,of those glands; or a tumour on a delicate portion of the brain. These tumours can be surgically removed without in any way interfering with the gland or brain. This last condition is apt to arise in puberty praecox—that is to say premature pubertal development through a tumour on a sex gland. Or it may operate in the opposite direction, and retard normal puberty. Removal of the tumour on any of these glands brings the subject back to normal again. Others may be caused by abnormal pineal functioning (in the brain). All those cases are remedial by glandular stimulation or retardation, by various methods according to the requirement of the case. Again, there may be abnormal thickness of the skull bones; or one surture may be an internal projection on the brain. Again, there may be twisted cervical (neck) vertebrae at birth: a truth which has only just been recently established. Nov.", to sterilise these cases would obviously be nothing but a rank Pi e< ?e of brutal tyranny, because it would only have the effect of rendering them even more depraved and degenerate. It is comparable to a man witn "degenerate" teeth going to a dentist. And the dentist would order him to be sexually sterilised. _ Yet this is precisely the kind of thing our sterilisers would have happen. And it well exemplifies what appalling blunders coil be foisted upon humanity through fanaticism, engendered by malice. Yet so hopelessly misinformed arc the majority of people, and so hopelessly ignorant, that the field is ripe for a neurotic stampede to be worked bv a few fanatics with an axe to grind in the shape of the latest fad.

I foresaw this kind of thing 10 years ago. And that is the reason why 1 nave been agitating for education to meet the challenge of the situation. \"o one has studied more than I the problems of human pathology. I had to indulge in painfully laborious research upon a broad tick! in order that i might pass on my knowledge to others; often at the expense of my own pocket, and heavy labour over long periods. But the vilest thing that could possibly happen is a social stampede of trying to deal with one evil by rushing headlong into another 10 limes worse. There is no occasion for terror and funk, nor malice and tyranny. But there is occasion for people to educate themselves fitfully so as to be responsible for wholesome reforms of lasting value. Sterilisation as the "only thing" for the purpose is the refuge of the damned and the defunct.

It is only tolerable when venereal, cancerous, "or tubercular infection is so | strongly advanced in the sex glands, I that no other line of action is pos- ! :-ible; or when the glands have been I too gravely injured. | The history of sterilisation alone is j quite sufficient to blast it irretrievably, i apart from those grave reasons. Social I sanction of it for any other reason I would plunge us back into those days j when it was the shame and degradation of the stage. The "Evirati" were I then pampered pets, but afterward.', ! when public opinion was aroused, were quickly banished. Many and various have been the infamies of this barbarity, called by various names, and camouflaged to cover it over. It was against these that Ihe whole weight of the Roman Catholic Church was thrown for several generations. And even as late as 1878, Pope Leo XIII. led the crusade against its remaining strongholds. Yet to-day we are being asked to sanction its return because of a few brief garbled cables from England and Germany. The agitation is senseless and utterly fallacious, for nowhere will sterilisation accomplish, what is claimed for it. Even venereal infection it cannot prevent, nor :;top its conveyance; it cannot even reduce potency, let alone counteract some other glandular abnormality. In fact, this last is often aggravated and inflamed as I have already shown. My plea is- for people 1o awaken to truths, and to learn for themselves the lessons of history, and of physiological functioning. Then, and only then, will we be able to solve problems of "degeneracy." Summed up it means: "Cure by prevention; prevent by education."—Yours, etc., R. M. THOMSON. New Plymouth, February 5, 1934.