THE ABOLITION OF PARENTAGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19865, 13 June 1927, Page 6

THE ABOLITION OF PARENTAGE

The veteran scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, has once more startled the world with one of those sensations he is so fond of springing on it. At the same time he gives a certain amount of comfort—chemical comfort—to those who have been bewailing the falling birthrate. No need now to worry about “keeping the cradle full!” If you desire to “fill the empty spaces,” all you will have to do, says Sir Oliver, is to hie to the laboratory, get your test tubes and retorts to work, and, hey presto! you can turn out as many chemically-produced babies as you need. Of course, Sir Oliver does not promise that we can do all that at once. For the present, he contents himself with observing that it is within the bounds of probability, even inevitability. He will not even set a date. “Some day” is the most he will commit himself to. And, even then, we must content ourselves with producing simple forms of life at first. The production of a first-class, stout-lunged baby that will keep its dad walking the floor all night must belong to the very dim and distant future. Even then, it will not really have a dad, unless one chooses to dignify one of the laboratory appliances with that title. Other professors have some comment to make on Sir Oliver’s prediction. One says that the laboratory production of life is not impossible. Another doubts it, but says we will not be able to do it for several centuries, if ever. So we have at least a breathing space left to prepare ourselves for the change. Meanwhile, of course, research will continue. Doubtless there will be numerous mistakes made. The combinations must be balanced with exactitude, or the results may be unexpected. Nl4 Z2 06 ClB, if mixed with just a drop too much H2O may be found to produce a weasel or a crocodile instead of genus homo. But no doubt we shall learn from our mistakes. It may be objected that these scientists have not specifically mentioned babies, but have only hinted at low forms of life. But, if one, why not the other? Science is’progressive. From microbe to man will be only a question of time. Parentage will be replaced by chemical formulae, slightly varied, of course, to produce differences in complexion. The birthrate will be regulated according to rule and line. And when' accidents occur, as they sometimes will, we can fancy the chemicallyproduced generation of the future gathering around the broken retort or the shattered test tube and, in the words of the old song, asking anxiously: “What’s the matter with Father?”