BIRTH CONTROL
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—If you will allow me, I should like to thank Sir James Marchant for the courtesy of his letter. The value of his social service is of course well known to me.
Upon the subject of birth control, if his view is, as I understand it to be, that parents, however gravely they may be afflicted, whether in body or in mind or in both, should be allowed to beget as many children as they may wish without restraint, I cannot agree with him ; for his view seems to import the progressive degeneration of the race. The means by which it is possible to limit the number of unfit children who are born into the world must be, and in some sense have already been, both scientifically and ethically considered ; you would not, I think, wish them to be discussed in your columns. But when Sir James Marchant asks who is entitled to " deprive lawfully married citizens from having a child to succeed them," the answer is the State. For it lies within the function of the State to prevent its citizens, and still more its diseased or disabled citizens, from doing wilful injury to the strength or happiness or morality of the national life.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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