ht, for their masquerade as a eugenic propaganda has brought
undeserved reproach on the eugenics movement.

The customary form of legal action in this case is to demand that both
applicants for a marriage license, or in some cases only the male, sign
an affidavit or present a certificate from some medical authority
stating that an examination has been made and the applicant found to be
free from any venereal disease. In some cases other diseases or mental
defects are included. When the law prevents marriage on account of
insanity, feeble-mindedness, or other hereditary defect, it obviously
has a eugenic value; but in so far as it concerns itself with venereal
diseases, which are not hereditary, it is only of indirect interest to
eugenics. The great objection to such laws is that they are too easily
evaded by the persons whom they are intended to reach--a fact that has
been demonstrated conclusively wherever they have been put in force.
Furthermore, the nature of the examination demanded is usually wholly
inadequate to ascertain whether the applicant really is or is not
afflicted with a venereal disease. Finally, it is to be borne in mind
that the denial of a marriage license will by no means prevent
reproduction, among the anti-social classes of the community.

For these reasons, the so-called eugenic laws of several states, which
provide for a certificate of health before a marriage license is issued,
are not adequate eugenic measures. They have some value in awakening
public sentiment to the value of a clean record in a prospective life
partner. To the extent that they are enforced, the probability that
persons afflicted with venereal disease are on the average eugenically
inferior to the unaffected gives these laws some eugenic effect. We are
not called on to discuss them from a hygienic point of view; but we
believe that it is a mistake for eugenists to let legislation of this
sort be anything but a minor achievement, to be followed up by more
efficient legislation.

Laws which tend to surround marriage with a reasonable amount of
formality and publicity are, in general, desirable eugenically. They
tend to discourage hasty and secret marriages, and to make matrimony
appear as a matter in which the public has a legitimate interest, and
which is not to be undertaken lightly and without consideration. Laws
compelling the young to get the consent of their parents before marriage
are to be placed in this category; and