EUGENIC MARRIAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3573, 24 February 1914, Page 7

EUGENIC MARRIAGE.

AMERICAN LEGISLATION FOR THE UNBORN.

IS IT GOING TOO FAR? No couple can now be married in Wisconsin without a health certificate showing that their mental and physical fitness is sufficient for them to bring into the world sane and sound children. The maximum medical fee allowed for the necessary examination is 12s. Tho doctors, however, are saying that it is not enough, and are refusing to make the tests that the law requires. As the registrars are declining to issue any licenses without the health certificate, it looks as though, until tho new law settles into shape, marriage will be a difficult matter in Wisconsin.

Special marriage laws, however, are by no means a new condition of life in America, a most comprehensive “bulletin” of them has been published by Dr. Charles B. Davenport, the distinguished biologist, who is secretary and resident director of the Eugenics Record Office of Cold Spring Harbour Long Island. So great has been the interest aroused by the publication that tho “New York Times” recently devoted a whole page to its review, showing that whilst there are certain good provisions, many of the States are legislating somewhat unwisely for the unborn child, and that there are now laws in force which, if they had been enacted universally, would have deprived the world of many useful citizens.

LEGAL REASON FOR PROHIBITION.

Dr Davenport points out that the laws of many States forbid 'issuing marriage licenses to persons who belong to any one of certain socially unlit classes —most commonly the insane and the imbecile, idiotic or feebleminded. The legal for the prohibition is a legal one, namely, that marriage is a contract, and that the affected person is incapable of making a contract.

Thus the law of North Carolina provides that marriage between persons, either of whom at the moment is' incapable of contracting for want of will or understanding, shall be void. For the same reason Ohio denies a license when either of the parties at the time of making the application for It is under the influence of an intoxicating liquor apd narcotic drug. Georgia and Pennsylvania liavo each a similar law. And the Maine law says that “no insane person, or idiot, or such person having a has band having a person having a husband or wife living, is capable of contracting marriage, and such marriages are absolutely void.” , »