TO THOSE ABOUT TO MARRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18480, 15 May 1922, Page 2

TO THOSE ABOUT TO MARRY

VIENNA DOCTOR’S SCHEME Free advice on whether or not to marry is shortly to be available in Vienna for people who wish to observe the principles of eugenics. Ju few cities (says the Vienna correspondent of the “Times”) is more thought given to the weal of the population than in Vienna, and of late the chief sanitary, Dr. Tandler, has been considerably exercised in mind the sums which the municipality has it? spend on treatment for children who are born idiots. According to Dr. Ta’idler you cannot prevent people from Laving children by merely imposing conditions of marriage, any more than you can make many people pay taxes if they are really determined to evade them, as the Austrian Treasury knows to its cost. You must cultivate a sense of responsibility in the individual. Dr handler’s p-cposal is, therefore, merely to give people an opportunity of consulting a doctor gratis before they are married. 'ln future there will be a municipal consultant on wedlock, who will be a doctor with a good knowledge of human nature over and above his medical qualifications. He will simply tell the people the truth about themselves and the prospects for their children if they many. The aim of the institution will be to educate public opinion to a point where it be as much a matter of common sense to consult a doctor before marriage as to have one’s baby vaccinated at birth.