At the Annual Public Meeting of the Academy of Sciences, held
in Paris in December, 1909, Professor Bouchard discussed the question of
the population of France, and came to the conclusion that the birth-rate
"depended upon social conditions which it was difficult if not
altogether impossible to modify, and in these circumstances the
alternative remedy was to reduce the number of deaths."
It must surely be plain that those reforms in the conditions of marriage
which have been advocated in this chapter will meet this need, and are
not necessarily to be feared even by those who, in this matter, devote
their solicitude entirely to the question of numbers, quality apart. For
the eugenist who is primarily concerned with quality these reforms are
surely unchallengeable.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE
A brief chapter must be devoted to the question of the conditions of
divorce, which are really part of the conditions of marriage. Here, as
in every other case, we must apply the universal and unchallengeable
eugenic criterion: the conditions of divorce, like the conditions of
marriage itself, must be such as best serve the future of the race. This
will mean that, in the first place, in entering upon marriage--which of
necessity means so much more to a woman than it does to a man--the woman
must have the assurance that when the conditions of the contract are
broken she will be liberated.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311