MORALITY OF BIRTH CONTROL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 18

MORALITY OF BIRTH CONTROL

MISS ETTJLE ROUT’S NEW BOOK. (From Od.h Own Correspondent.) LONDON, June 2. In her new book “The Morality of Birth Control” (Tho liodley Bead, ss), Miss Etlio A. Rout (Mrs F. A. lloniibrook) sets out to disentangle and weigh the general views ' of those who are justified in pronouncing an opinion on this important subject. "There is nu period in human history, " she maintains, “when birth control measures have not been widely exorcised, and there is abundant indication that prehistoric men and women habitually employed checks of various kinds. Only the uninformed will accept tho claims of modern birth controllers who have ‘discovered' something humanity was well aware oi thousands uud thousands of years ago; only the fraudulent will pretend that a practice which has survived so long is useless and dangerous; only the unintelligent will suppose that the knowledge of birth control now in the world can Uo taken out of it. Tho informed, the honest, the unprejudiced, the intelligent, sensible members of the public will agree that something which has always been with us, and is hero to-day more than over, had better bo accepted us a part of individual and social life, developed scientifically, and applied to the advantage of the individual and of society.” The author points out that the Church and tho State havo_both contrived for two thousand years to reduce reproduction to a fraction of what it would otherwise be, by the postponement of marriage, enforcement of legal monogamy, celibacy of tho clergy, and limitation of intercourse among married persons. * Tho question therefore is not—-Do the Church and State approve of controlling human fecundity? They obviously do. The question is—How much further will the Church and State go in tho matter of birth control? If they approve of still further checking increases of population—What methods are they prepared to recommend? THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE. So great has been the conquest of death by medicai science that tho average individual life of civilised humanity has been extended by several years. Each individual needs more room ami more food than formerly; in the future, will need still more. “The only alternative to the voluntary control of fertility to prevent overcrowding is to lower the standard of life and let the overcrowding go from bad to worse, as has been done in parts of India and China. Do we really want to live like tho Hindus and the Chinese? This moans that instead of preventing the birth of too many new citizens, we kill off more quickly those who are here — to make room for new ones; and reduce tho level of comfortable subsistence almest to vanishing point. AVhy should it bo considered more moral to deprive a human being of a portion of the possible term of life than to postpone the arrival of another human being till there is a vacant place in the sun? Why should it be regarded as meritorious to increase the quantity and lower tho quality of human beings, and, generally, to depreciate tho standard of living? RACE IMPROVEMENT. The author goes on to discuss tho problem from the point of view of race improvement. She maintains that tho greatest good to future generations can be obtained, not from unwilling maternity, but from the education of young wives aa to the control of their own fertility. Unchastity, Avar, ancient and modern birth controls are other headings under which the subject is pursued, and ahvavs with a frank acceptance of the facts of life. In a chapter on marriage it is stated: “In any evolved society, romance and reproduction may be separated or united at will. There are times when all women and all men long for infertile love-relationship; hut there are no times ivhen women desiro loveless fertility. Marriages which do not make provision for these ineradicable desires never have been and never will be soulsatisfying. Nations which deny such freedoms ’to women cannot possibly call themselves ‘emancipated.’ AVhen such ‘ nations contain millions of ‘surplus women,' and insist upon monogamic marriage, at the same time preaching maternity’ as the duty of all women, it is difficult to find any solid ethical standing ground.” A considerable section of the book is devoted to a digest on various debates and conferences on the subject, and finally tho author deals with tho subject of migration and Empire settlement, showing that in those groat new lands a knowledge of contraceptives is even more important to the settlers than to tho people of more congested communities. The volume is well written, lucid, and logical. It is a difficult subject, well handled and written with some reserve.