Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10A - DNA Patent Database ...

THE SCOPE OF THE COMMITTEE’S WORK. 59
ing out of the eugenical program will come an increased and enhanced
feeling of the sanctity of life and of parenthood.
This program for cutting off the lower levels of the human breed-
ing stock is only a part of the general eugenics program, which must
include also the positive side, namely, that of encouraging increased
fecundity and fortunate matings among the better classes. Indeed, as
time goes by, the business of eugenics will tend more and more toward
this positive side, aristogenics, it is sometimes called. The program as
outlined by the committee calls for a task that will require two genera-
tions for the completion of its first stage. No matter to what extent
laws may be passed, unless the eugenics program becomes a part of the
American civic religion, the financial support necessary to put it into
execution cannot be secured from the several legislatures. Nor, with-
out such general feeling, will it be possible even with abundant money
to effectively execute a program.
If America is to escape the doom of nations generally, it must
breed good Americans. The fall of every nation in history has been
due to many causes, but always chiefest among these causes has been
the decline of the national stock. Nations must change, but they need
not of necessity die out. A quickened eugenics conscience is one of
the prerequisites necessary to the working out of a successful eugenics
program. Eugenics must be diffused through our religious and moral
codes. It must be taught throughout our national educational system.
It must be the subject of continued research.
Along with eugenical advance will come social and moral advance-
ment, for, if not, why should we try to breed better persons? The more
moral society will foster the eugenics ideal, and the eugenics program
will in turn produce people susceptible of a higher social and moral
development.
To epitomize—of the several remedies reviewed segregation and
sterilization are the ones deemed by this committee to be most feasible
and effective in cutting off from the human population the supply of
defectives. Restrictive marriage laws and customs, eugenic education
of the public, of prospective marriage consorts, and in youth of poten-
tial parents, and general environmental betterment are all eugenic
agencies of great value. In this particular problem, however, they rank
greatly below segregation and sterilization, although in other social
programs they are of prime importance. We condemn Neo-Malthusian-
ism because in it we fail to find an agency able to cut off the supply of
defectives, but, on the other hand, we find it fraught with great danger,