Letters to the Editor
[In view of the length of many of the letters which we receive, we would remind correspondents that we often cannot give space for long letters and that short ones are generally read with more attention. The length which we consider most suitable is about that of one of our paragraphs on " News of the Week."—Ed. Spam a.roa.I STERILIZATION OF THE MENTALLY DEFECTIVE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I address this letter to any advocate of sterilization of those who are mentally defective. To inflict sterilization upon any boy or girl is to deprive him of a cherished and highly prized attribute. It is true that he (or she) may not desire to employ that attribute but that inhibition is voluntary. But having discovered a person to be mentally defective, to be in fact below par mentally, you proceed to do him a further injury and still further to lower his physical and mental posi- tion ; and you do this, not because he has committed any evil or foolish act, but out of fear lest he should increase the number of persons like himself, and so—and this is where the canker gnaws—cost you more money. You do not cure him ; you do not attempt to cure him or to alleviate his unfortunate position ; but for your own selfish ends you proceed to make him worse.
Having sterilized him (or her) are you simply going to set him free, thus further depressed, merely to sink or swim ? Surely you must provide for him ; and if you are going to provide shelter and security for him, what benefit is there in having sterilized him ? He will probably have to live in a monastic institution in any event. You say that modern methods of sterilization produce no effect upon him other than prevention of reproduction ; but where is your proof ? It is not true emotionally and piychically, and therefore not true physically and mentally.
In the case of a boy it may from a certain point of view be a matter of has moment, but in the case of a girl whose intelli- gence and Whose power of self-restraint are lower than normal it is an urgent matter. Everyone Who has had to do with young people knows that the fear of unlawful pregnancy is in a large number of cases a very important deciding factor in even a perfectly normal girl's refusal of sexual relationships. Ryon remove this barrier you absolutely cannot fail to increase in this way the dangers to which such a girl is exposed at the hands of designing persons and on account of her own feebler inhibition. No statistics'can prove the contrary. Some tell us that there has been no increase of venereal disease where this operation has been resorted to ; but in the first place the statistics are very limited even where they are above suspicion, and in the second place the real point is the moral deterioration of the girl and her " friends " : the communication of disease is more readily preventable than it used to be, and there is a definite dread of punishment now for such communication.
The average mentally defective boy is not likely to marry or to be an interesting person to any sensible girl. He is a " duffer," does not retain any job he is given, earns poor wages, is not one on whom to lean. The sterilization of the boy is therefore less clamant than that of the girl. Many of the mentally defective girls on the other hand are attractive to men ; they are often gentle, pretty, amiable, kindly creatures, very easily led, and the danger that through her the " taint " may be carried on is in this way much greater. But suppose that in a given household there are five or seven children of whom one is " M.D." and the rest are " normal," or at all events not " M.D." The progeny of these is quite as liable to be " M.D." as that of the " M.D." himself or herself. Are you going then to sterilize the whole family because one is " M.D." ? To be logical you ought to do so. Let it be noted that in order to meet your contention in this argument I have assumed, what is not admitted, that any large amount of mental deficiency is definitely inherited.
A further point which should be gone into is this. Many times it is the case that a family which includes one or more M.D.s " is found to contain also some unusually bright and " super-normal " members, and the future history of such a family has been shown to be not of the unrelieved blackness suggested by some writers.
One of the most singular suggestions which have been put forward in this connexion is that the " M.D." may consent to, or even desire, sterilization ; that is, that a person who is ex hypothesi so defective in intellect as to require sterilization is capable of giving consent to a measure so serious ! If he really understands what it all means he cannot be very defective mentally, and if he does not understand you have injured him deceitfully as well as cruelly.
It is plain to one who considers the matter that this drastic method of bringing to an end an undesirable strain may be extended in a way which has not yet been realized. There are persons in our midst who do society much worse ill than merely procreating inefficient citizens. What of the families which consist largely of thieves, prostitutes, burglars, ruffians ?
If " A " advocates sterilization for mental deficiency, may not " B " insist upon it for some blind or deaf-mute family, and " C " cry out that it should be applied to heretics and Bolsheviks ? Where is this to end ?
The infliction of sterilization is not justified, because it does nor really relieve the evil or benefit the sufferer, and because it is a cowardly policy to shelter ourselves behind such a
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