THE FIT AND UNFIT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 27, 1 February 1923, Page 3

THE FIT AND UNFIT

10 IHB EDITOR.

Sir, —In "The Poet" of 25th inst. appears an account of a discussion at a meeting of North Canterbury Hospital Board as to whether we are going to continue to reproduce in the happy-go-lucky way of tie past. The thanks of tijose who know what is the trouble in tfee British race are due to Dr. Fenwick ared. other medical men of this country who are trying to improve matters. It is a matter of opinion if the measures proposed by Dr. Fenwick are too drastic, but. there can be no doubt that the time hasi arrived to make a change and work for a cleaner race. That nonsense talked by .Mr. W. E. Leadley about our being a liberty loving race is quite beside the marlk; we do not encourage' brothers and 'bisters to have children. That is a crirrK\. Is it not just as great a crime if we knowingly enourage those mentally afflictfd to reproduce? A few years ago Mr. Bishop, . then S.M. at ChristchuTch, in a public lecture, said on the occasion of child adoption : "At the time appointed for dealing with the legal formalities, the lady in question attended, at my office, acccmpani^ti by the mother of the infant, the putative iaih-er, and.matron of the home.

The matron was carrying the baby. Directly I looked at the mother, I knew that 6he was mentally deficient, and in the child I saw the most pronounced facial characteristics of its unfortunate mother. The matron told me that the mother was practically an imbecile, and this was her third child. It seemed to me a perfectly shocking thing that a woman should be content to take a child that bore tie undoubted print of degeneracy and pass it off as if born of her body. I knew there must be a bitter awakening in the future, and I tried to dissuade her. She was, however, quite decided about it, and I could not refuse to make the order."

But what is the awakening of a. kindhearted ,wom3n in a case of this sort compared to the awakening o£ real parents when they find their own children sent to asylums, the result of ignorance and bad laws which doctors now advise us to remedy ? Those connected with the mentally afflicted can help to improve matters by taking doctors' advice before marriage as to whether they should have children. Let them marry, but not reproduce if there is a strain of insanity on both sides. Should both parents be fainted, much misary will be avoided if they do not reproduce.—l am, etc., JOSHUA JOHNSON. 27th January.