This proposal must be tested by asking whether it would tend to
strengthen and perpetuate the race or not. It is, in effect, a proposal
to have the state pay so much a head for babies. The fundamental
question is whether or not the quality of the babies would be taken into
account. Doubtless the babies of obviously feeble-minded women would be
excluded, but would it be possible for the state to pay liberally for
babies who would grow up to be productive citizens, and to refuse to pay
for babies that would doubtless grow up to be incompetents, dolts,
dullards, laggards or wasters? The scheme would work, eugenically, in
proportion as it is discriminatory and graded.
But the example of legislation in France and England, and the main trend
of popular thought in America, make it quite certain that at present,
and for many years to come, it will be impossible to have babies valued
on the basis of quality rather than mere numbers. It is sometimes
possible to get indirect measures of a eugenic nature passed, and it has
been found possible to secure the passage of direct measures which
prevent reproduction of those who are actually defective. But even the
most optimistic eugenist must feel that, short of the remote future, any
attempt to have the state grade and pay for babies on the basis of their
quality is certain to fail to pass.
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