BIRTH CONTROL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20291, 27 December 1927, Page 12

BIRTH CONTROL.

MEDICAL ASPECTS. REPORT OF MEDICAL COMMITTEE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 16. m “ Medical Aspects of Contraception is the title of a report issued by the Medical Committee appointed by the National Council of Public Morals in connection with the National Birth Kate note the National Counrtl recalls that in 1925 it published the report of the special committee appointed “to consider the ethical aspects of birth control from the point of view of Chris tianpeople,” and states that the present St the report “is not suited nor is it intended for general reading, but tor those medical men and women upon whom responsibility Ues for giving advice on most difficult subject. , In its report- the committee, of whom Mr Charles Gibbs, senior surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital ■ and the Lock Hospital, was chairman, and Sir Arthur Newsholme. K.C.8.. was vice-chairman, finds that the amount of scientific knowledge as to the efficiency of contraceptives is very small, and points out that exact information could be bascd only on the collection of scientific, data extending over a period of years, it, however, directs attention to two sources of error which appear to vitiate much that has been written on this subject: 1. A considerable proportion of marriages are sterile apart from disease or from the use of contraceptives. . 2. In normal experience of married life the average intervals of child-bearing are much longer than is commonly supposed. COMMITTEE’S CONCLUSIONS. Subject to the above considerations and to the fact that the Committee is attempting to base its. opinions exclusively on medical grounds, it has arrived at the following conclusions: — 1 That the prevention of conception is being attempted by a large number of individuals. , . , ~ 2. That this number is probably increasing rapidly. 3. That the reduction in the birth rate is partially, and perhaps chiefly, due to the increasing use of contraceptive methods. , . 4. That, judging from experiments on animals, diet may have an influence on fecundity in human beings; though, in view of the variations of fecundity in different communities in which no difference of diet has been detected, this remains to be proved. 5. It is generally stated that contraceptives are producing a diminution in the number of offspring of those best able to bring up a family satisfactorily, but that they are not being used to the same extent by people who are unable to sup- . port their families, or by those who, owing to alcoholic tendencies, mental defect. or other inherited disease, are not likely to beget good citizens. UNJUSTIFIABLY DOGMATIC ASSERTIONS. In their joint memorandum Sir Arthur Newsholme and Professor Hill make three modifications in their adherence to the report:— . (a) Greater stress than appears in the report should be laid on what appears to them to be the exaggeration as to the frequency with which the control of conception in married life is called for in tbe true interests of the family or for health’s (b) are not satisfied that contraceptives are harmless from the physical point of view. (c) The greater problem as to the influence which the use of contraceptives may exert on the health and well being of the community was not entered upon by the committee. On the third point they make the following comment: —“ We desire to place our opinion on record, and to protest against the unjustifiably dogmatic assertions often made as to the effect of contraception, practised to its present extent, in producing a stock which is intrinsically poorer in its hereditary qualities. These assertions arise out of the greater fertility amoifg poorer sectionsof the population who are assumed to be inferior in inherited qualities; but, inasmuch as hitherto there has been almost complete failure to distinguish between the intrinsic or hereditary and the en vironmental, including pre-natal, influences concerned, these assertions must, except in regard to certain exceptional conditions, be classed as not proven.” In a statement submitted to the committee, Lord Dawson of Penn, whose views on the subject under discussion are well known, asserted that there was no evidence that the use of contraceptives as such does either physical or moral harm to those who practise it.