ess, under age, etc.
Such a law, we believe, could be put on the statute books of any state,
and enforced, without arousing prejudices or running counter to public
sentiment; and its eugenic value, if small, would certainly be real.

This exhausts the list of suggested coercive means of restricting the
reproduction of the inferior. What we propose is, we believe, a very
modest program, and one which can be carried out, as soon as public
opinion is educated on the subject, without any great sociological,
legal or financial hindrances. We suggest nothing more than that
individuals whose offspring would almost certainly be subversive of the
general welfare, be prevented from having any offspring. In most cases,
such individuals are, or should be, given life-long institutional care
for their own benefit, and it is an easy matter, by segregation of the
sexes, to prevent reproduction. In a few cases, it will probably be
found desirable to sterilize the individual by a surgical operation.

Such coercive restriction does, in some cases, sacrifice what may be
considered personal rights. In such instances, personal rights must give
way before the immensely greater interests of the race. But there is a
much larger class of cases, where coercion can not be approved, and yet
where an enlightened conscience, or the subtle force of public opinion,
may well bring about some measure of restraint on reproduction. This
class includes many individuals who are not in any direct way
detrimental to society; and who yet have some inherited taint or defect
that should be checked, and of which they, if enlightened, would
probably be the first to desire the elimination. The number of
high-minded persons who deliberately refrain from marriage, or
parenthood, in the interests of posterity, is greater than any one
imagines, except a eugenist brought into intimate relations with people
who take an intelligent interest in the subject.

X. comes, let us say, from a family in which there is a persistent taint
of epilepsy, or insanity. X. is a normal, useful, conscientious member
of society. To talk of segregating such an individual would be rash. But
X. has given some thought to heredity and eugenics, and decides that he,
or she, will refrain from marriage, in order to avoid transmitting the
family taint to another generation. Here we have, in effect, a
non-coercive restriction of reproduction. What shall we say of the
action of X. in remaining celiba