1937-04-03 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 3, 1937.

Eugenics In Germany-After

TUST over three years ago there started in Germany

JUST was

Three Years

with

forgotten in this connection. These things have nothing to do opinions or sentiments. It is the science of biology applied to the human race.

one of the most momentous eugenic experiments in the world's history. German surgeons were given the right and the duty to use the scal-

deference to humanitarian senti- formed are likely to become victims pel in a domain that had hitherto ments. But a society determined ex- to a sense of inferiority, but eugenic Doom Of Urbanisation? been virtually barred to them. In clusively by reason cannot allow it- reformers contend, as against this,

to

point of fact, an entirely new do- self to the constantly threatened with that the moral plus gained by the Then there are those achievements main had been opened to them by disintegration by the persistence of idea of self-sacrifice for the general which are not directly visible the law for the prevention of dis- a menace from within of this kind. good is a compensatory factor suf- the eye and which must be consider-

ficiently potent to overcome any in- ed in the light of the eased offspring, a piece of legisla-

feriority complex.

tion that gave practical realisation

at long last to certain eugenic ideas False Humanitarism with regard to racial purity and the health of the national organism considered as a whole.

and struggle

Here the rule is to contrast the

against urbanisation and super-in- dustrialism. Much has been writ- tenon

on this theme by Ger- man biologists and racialists. In- Mendelism Triumphant deed, it is computed that there is an It has already been indicated that

annual output in Germany of some owing to the nature of this eugenic experiment, it is difficult to obtain During the last three decades the three thousand books dealing with A period of three years is na- data that will serve to show how entire cultural life of Europe has racial science and kindred subjects turally quite insufficient for judging the law is working out in practice. been more or less governed by biolo- alone. the effects of a measure conceived One foreign medical journal. recent- gical thought and now Germany has ly published figures said to have experienced three years of eugenic in terms of successive generations. been acquired from official quar- legislation that in reality owed its freedom and equality of the origin- It is biological in its very nature, ters. But the writer of the origin to Gregor Mendel's discovery al rural Teutonic society and mo- and biology as applied to the human article made no attempt to veil his of the laws of hereditary transmis- dern industrialism with its urbani- race is a science whose tracks èx- hostility to the experiment. He sion. Two visible results have been sation and consequent growth of a landless proletariat destroying the said that in the year 1935, no less achieved in this short period. In tend back into the remote past. than 40,000 persons in Germany suf- the field of combatting population biological and sociological equili- Hence, conversely, eugenic legisla- fering from diseases of an heredit- decline, special state legislation en- brium of medieval society. The urban tors invariably speak of effects that able character had been sterilized. abled young couples intending mar concepts of freedom and equality riage to obtain financial ald... As are held to be far removed from the a high will reveal themselves during the He also maintained that

percentage of those treated had only healthy persons could obtain Germanic ideal which can now only next thousand years.

be realised through de-urbanisation, died from the after-effects of the these marriage loans, there was a

land settlement; eugenic reforms operation. These figures can be re- biological factor at work here and

and by - inculeating a new Nordic Moreover, it is generally agreed garded as pure guesses, arrived at it can be safely said that there will

spirit. that eugenic legislation should be probably by taking the figures sup be no signs of family degeneration viewed in the light of science alone, plied by one local Eugenic Court and in the half a million children born The tightly packed towns, these It is not politics in the orthodox working out corresponding ratio of such marriages during the Na- racialists and eugenists contend, are sense of the word. It best operates for the whole of Germany.

subject to mass psychology which silently, seemingly beneath the sur-

furnishes communism with its face. Thus, although the German

As a matter of fact, the views The second visible result is the strongest roots. Only in constant law for the prevention of diseased held by medical science in Germany decrease in the burden of disease contact with the soil can there be offspring was hailed at its incep after the law for the prevention of born by the nation as a whole. Un- realisation of human personality and tion as a great political achievement, diseased offspring has been in force der this heading will also fall the here, rather than in the skill of the no further political ado is being for three years seem to be on the legislation forbidding inter-marri- German surgeon, is to be sought made about it.

whole in favour of methods of per age between Aryan and non-Aryan the real guarantee of the health and suasion rather than of drastic com- stock. The activities of the matri- racial integrity of coming genera- pulsion.

monial advisory courts must not be tions.

Persuasion Or

Compulsion

One thing is certain, it required

courage to make sterilization a wea-

the fight for eradicating

tional Socialist regime.

disense from the national organism NEW GAS FIRE SCHEME

that

But prudence was called for in the To be sure, opponents of this kind

application of a weapon of this of legislation, seeing in it a menace kind and such has undoubtedly been to the sacred rights of the indivi- shown by the German legislators, al- dual, try to prove that the law is though it must be admitted not working satisfactorily. As is there is a strong party of enthusi- generally known, according to this astic extremists. However,* except law, every German doctor is under in the case of criminals, the law compulsion to report to the local Eugenic Court the name of any of his patients discovered to be suf- fering from some disease of phy"

sical malformation of an hereditable character. - The Eugenic Court then puts itself directly in touch with the patient and advises voluntary sterilization.

respects the rights and liberties of the individual seeing that no opera- tion may be performed without first obtaining the patient's voluntary consent.

Important Distinction

This seemingly drastic procedure had been decided upon in Germany Furthermore, it cannot be too --as in other countries, too, includ- often pointed out that the German ing the Province of Alberta, Canada, law draws a clear distinction be which was a pioneer in this field- tween sterilization and castration, in view of the prevalence of certain the latter being a penalty forcibly startling factors felt to be intoler- meted out to certain types of the able in this century now that biolo sexual criminal. The latter opera- gical ways of thinking have become tion has the effect of altering the predominant. Every nation has its entire personality, whereas steriliza- burden of disease, Germany, right- tion does not change the -personal- ly considered to be one of the heality and therefore, in its applica thiest of the European nations, has tion to those suffering from heredit- its racial health seriously imperilled able diseases, can be regarded by the prevalence, inter alia, of harmless in the ordinary sense, and some 80,000 cases of

zo- advisable in cases where the disease- phrenie, scientific name covering is accompanied by lack of self-con- varioù disorders of the mind.

Social reformers as a rule have disregarded auch facts mainly

trol

It has been said that those upon om the operation has been per

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