Cultivation of the Unfit

Abstract

E. W. M. SAYS that the minimum size of family required to maintain a population constant is four children; but, happily for women, at least one eminent statistician (Dr. Louis I. Dublin) has indicated that an average of three children per fertile couple will be sufficient. Next he raises a bogy when he declares that ” sterilisation is a mutilation to which few will consent”; because, in males, it is merely a ligaturing of two superficial ducts and may become the commonest contraceptive method. Next he says that the only remedy for the over-production of children by the least fit is ” compulsory sterilisation as a punishment for parents who have to resort to public assistance in order to support their children”, although this would be an injustice until the popular remedy of abortion were legalised.