The Sterilization of Mental Defectives
- Date of publication:
April, 1930
To the Editor of Mental Welfare.
Sir,
We shall all be in agreement with many of the facts regarding Mental Defect which Dr Tredgold mentions in his interesting article in the last issue of ” Mental Welfare.” It is, however, with regard to the inferences that Dr. Tredgold draws from the data, and with the conclusion at which he arrives, that I should like to offer a few remarks. While admitting that mental defect is due to inheritance in the majority of cases (see page 10), Dr Tredgold thinks that it is not due to a lack of some factor or influence of a mendelian kind, but that it is the ” expression of an impairment of developmental potentiality “? a “vitiated condition of the germ cells,” and one in which “the condition of the resulting offspring can be influenced by the ante-natal environment,” and further that this”
vitiated germinal material ” can show itself in offspring not only as mental deficiency but in other forms of mental instability, for instance, Dementia Precox. This latter statement is, of course, perfectly true. The important question, however, arises as to what we include (or exclude) in our conception of inheritance. Is the defect in the material basis of heredity (the presence or absence of a gene), or whatever it be, which is responsible for the hereditary transmission of mental deficiency specific to mental defect, or does it represent merely a general impairment of germ cell vitality affecting not only the development of the brain but the condition of the organism as a whole, as Dr Tredgold seems to think? The genetical facts, among others, the way in which mental deficiency may be latent in one generation and segregate out among the children of the next, according to the character of the matings and the germinal constitution of the parents and grandparents, strongly suggests the influence of a specific element, that is a factor or gene, the presence or absence of which specifically influences the development of the cerebral nerve cells. The statement that ” even if ‘ carriers’ were eliminated, yet, since the factors which initiate impairment of germ cells are still in operation, a new crop of mental defectives would soon come into being,” if true, is somewhat disquieting. Mendelians, while recognising the possibility of the re-appearance of such a defective variation or mutation, would, I think, hardly agree that it is bound to appear in so short a time. Many will feel hopeful that if both ” exhibitors ” and ” carriers ” could be eliminated as parents from the population, then the problem of mental deficiency would be reduced to manageable proportions.
The statement on page 10, that in a majority of cases of mental defect the parent or parents of the affected child are themselves unaffected may be quite true, but the question is, what do we include in the term unaffected. While such parents may be unaffected as far as their own bodies and minds are concerned, they may not be unaffected as far as their germ cells are concerned. In fact, if the character of the matings and the germinal constitution of the immediate ancestors of these parents were known, then the proportion of defective germ cells which they would produce might also be approximately determined. But the practical question still remains, how can we best approach the problem of the prevention of mental deficiency? Dr Tredgold (see page 13) claims that sterilization would have very little effect in preventing mental deficiency.
He thinks it will not reduce the cost of mental deficiency to the nation, and that it will not add to the happiness of the mental defectives themselves. Thus, on preventive, economic and humanitarian grounds, he regards segregation (as a general policy) as preferable to sterilization. At the same time he admits that for the large number of mental defectives who are stable and well conducted, and for whom, after training, occupation can be found, sterilization might be made a condition of discharge.
I want to suggest that segregation and sterilization are not opposite, but complementary methods, and that each has its own value, in its own field In view of the impossibility, under present conditions, of segregating (during reproductive life) even all the ” exhibitors,” to say nothing of the ” carriers,” of mental defect, I think we should seriously consider the great help which sterilization, wisely carried out, is capable of rendering in preventing the risk of procreation among defectives of the higher grades; it would also make it possible for them to take some part in the life of the community without the risk of promoting racial decay. It seems to me, therefore, that the time has arrived when both methods should be carefully considered without bias and on their merits.
1 am, Sir, Yours faithfully, C. J. Bond.
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