The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully
instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of
avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all
alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system
of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is
certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice.
In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the
reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very
measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences.
Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of
the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of
the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their
specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who
find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even
moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will
hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their
biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must
be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden
of reproducing the group.
It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should
obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned
over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival.
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