The aim of Eugenics is to study the laws of heredity as they apply to human beings, with the practical purpose of using this knowledge for improving the physical and mental quality of the race. Eugenists believe that no child should be born into the world who is unlikely to have a fair chance. They affirm, therefore, that anyone, man or woman, who undertakes the serious responsibility of parenthood, must be free from any disease, mental defect, or other disability that is likely to be passed on by heredity and so impair the quality of future generations. Most intelligent people now share this view; indeed, many have too few children, because they wish to give the best care and attention to each child. But the nation is endangered when fit people refuse to have children for selfish reasons. Our country needs the best citizens it can produce.

But if it is agreed that people who are sound in body and mind should have as many children as they can afford to bring up, it follows that people who are ill endowed in body or mind, and whose offspring are liable to be unhealthy or subnormal, should avoid having children.

The next generation should be recruited from good stocks rather than from bad. But exactly the opposite is now happening, for it is among the fittest stocks that the birth rate is lowest and among the unfit that it is highest. We should not be content to allow this to continue. We should encourage the fertility of persons likely to produce healthy children, and at the same time prevent the waste and misery caused by the birth of children who are healthy neither in mind nor in body.

These policies deserve the serious consideration of every citizen and especially of young people who are entering on adult life and beginning to realize its responsibilities.