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STERILISING THE UNFIT.
To the Editor.
Sir.— A lady signing herself 'Human-
ity' advocates the sterilisation of the
unfit (by which she means the feeble
minded). Now as one who has some
experience of defectives, let me say inai
expert opinion is very sharply divided
on this point. Feeble-minded persons,
whether sterilised or not, need care and
control: and if they are kept (as they
should be) in an industrial colony doing
useful work under institutional super
vision, they are, in effect, already
sterilised without any surgical operation
at all. Nor would public opinion tole
rate sterilisation until the person to be
sterilised had run amok and done some
thing: in other words, had shown that
institutional control was necessary in the
public interest, whether this person
were sterilised or not (sexual degenerates
are usually liable to break out in some
other direction if sterilised). This strikes
me as an awkward dilemma for advo
cates of sterilisation. Moreover, intel
lectual and emotional development is
more bound up with the development of
the reproductive system than most people
(who have never seen eunuchs) have
any idea of. Many an apparently de
fective boy turns a nook at adolescence
and at 25 or so becomes a normal useful
man. To condemn such a one to be
made an eunuch might well prevent him
ever getting well, whereas in a colony
he can be trained as a fanner or artisan,
and at 25 years or so become a usefu
citizen Has 'Humanity' considered
f.hese aspects of the case?— Yours, etc^,
A. EVJi
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