THE MENTALLY UNFIT

Taranaki Daily News, 20 August 1935, Page 3

THE MENTALLY UNFIT

DISCUSSION ON STERILISATION. FIGURES FROM INSTITUTIONS. The sterilisation of the mentally unfit was the subject of an. informal address given on Wednesday by Dr. Mary Champtaloup at the fortnightly meeting of the Y.W.C.A. Business and Professional Won.en’s Round Table Club at New Plymouth. Dr. Champtaloup did not advocate sterilisation nor decry its possible usefulness as a remedy, but she endeavoured to educate the minds of her audience to a clear understanding of the whole subject. A growing concei'n was felt over the increasing burden thrown on the community by the care of the mentally unfit, she said. The attention of the taxpayer had been attracted and as a result commissions had been appointed to inquire into the problem. The findings of these commissions had not relieved the public mind. A report that took five years to prepare was issued by a British committee in 1929 and it was shown that there were 288,556 mentally deficient persons in England and Wales or 7.34 per 1000 persons. It was estimated that one third of these would require institutional >care. The quoted figures related to the feeble-mind-ed, the imbecile and the idiot, but did not include persons suffering from insanity. If the number of persons domiciled in mental hospitals were added there would be a total of 438,822 who required some form of care and supervision. . , , In New Zealand there were eight mental hospitals and the total number of patients under care at the end of last year was 7773. Of that number 1884 belonged to the class of mentally deficient, leaving 5889 mentally disordered persons in the institutions. Dr. Grey in his report stated that the department conducted clinics for mental affections at the general hospitals in the main centres and that last year 508 new cases were reported. This year there were under official notice 6397 cases of mental disorder. Of the other class, the mentally

deficient, there were 1884 cases in the institutions. Under the 1928 amendment of the Act psychological clinics were established. To these were referred cases from the education board, the police, magistrate, the Supreme Court, medical practitioners and from private sources. During the six years these clinics had been in operation 2982 cases had been reported.. The clinics were the main source of information and they reported on a total of 5151 mentally deficient persons. With 6397 officially known cases of mental disorder the total was 11,548 people, and 8058 of that number were institution inmates. Such was the official estimate of the problem, said Dr. Champtaloup. It was actually much greater, however, for the figures did not include a large number of border-line cases in private care who were not brought under notice. Dr. Champtaloup discussed the question of heredity and environment and stated that defective inheritance was the most potent cause of mental unfitness. Accepting that view one had to consider the possible utility of sterilisation, its benefits to individuals and its benefits to the community. In cases where the parents of mental defectives were themselves quite normal no doubt voluntary sterilisation would bring relief from what must be an intolerable situation. Where one or more parents were mentally defective they were unfit for the rearing of children. In such cases voluntary sterilisation would be beneficial. Dr. Champtaloup left the members of hei- audience to form their own conclusion.