hildren, too, will have a right to bless
you or curse you, according to your way of answering the question,
"Ought I to marry?"

But even your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are not
all the somebodies who are vitally concerned with your answer. Hundreds
of people will be helped or hindered by your home, by the kind of person
you become under its influence, and by the kind of children who go out
from it. You and "he," or you and "she," are certainly the ones most
immediately concerned in the question "Ought I to marry?" but your
children's stake in the matter is even greater than yours.

Now for the three questions which are implied when you ask, "Ought I to
marry?" First, "Have I a right to marry?" Every young person should ask
this question. Fitness includes several aspects, among which the first
is physical. The most inexcusable unfitness is venereal disease. There
is no meaner crime than for a young man to acquire venereal disease by
reason of weakness of will, and then pass it on to an innocent girl and
perhaps to unborn children. Physicians say that in spite of so-called
modern prophylaxis and supposed cures, syphilis is still alarmingly
common, and other venereal diseases are rampant. A person having any of
these diseases has absolutely no right to marry. Even if he is
pronounced cured, he ought not to marry until a physician pronounces him
cured _beyond danger of recurrence_.

For this reason the strictest premarital examination by a competent
physician should be required. Marriage should be contracted only after
such a physician has given both man and woman a clean bill of health.
This is desirable as a means not only of creating a public opinion
which will express itself in laws, but of giving both parties a feeling
of security. No matter how completely they may trust each other, it is
well to have a physician verify the trust.

Another reason for a complete physical examination before marriage is to
determine whether it is possible for both parties to have children.
Sometimes expert medical advice and treatment make all the difference
between a childless home and one that has the happiness of a
well-rounded family. In every marriage children should be an essential
feature--the most essential feature in the long run. In many countries
sterility is sufficient grounds for divorce. In an ideal civilization
probably no marriage would be permitted between a person who appears to
be sterile and