mentary justice, of marriage,
of the individual and of the race, the conditions of marriage must be so
modified that they shall be equal for both sexes, and that the best
members of both sexes shall find them acceptable. This last is of course
the fundamental eugenic requirement.

The initial criticism of some will be, no doubt, that many men who now
marry will decline the bargain. But surely we need not care at all--if
the right kind of men accept it. As for the others, in the coming time,
when we take more care of our womanhood, and when they are deprived of
the economic weapon, they may go whither they will, their
non-representation in the future of the race being precisely what we
desire.

Women, then, are entitled to demand that the conditions of marriage be
so modified as, above all things, to allow them the possession of
themselves as the married man has possession of himself. The imposition
of motherhood upon a married woman in absolute despite of her health and
of the interests of the children is none the less an iniquity because it
has at present the approval of Church and State. It is woman who bears
the great burden of parenthood, and with her the decision must rest. It
is idle to reply that this is impossible, for it is possible, as there
are not a few happy wives throughout the civilized world to bear
testimony. Every new life that comes into being is to be regarded as
sacred from the first. The accident of birth at a particular stage in
its development does not in the slightest degree affect this ethical
principle, as even the law, for a wonder, recognizes. The full
acceptance of the principle that woman must decide is, I am convinced,
the only right and effective way in which to abolish altogether the
dangers at present run by the life which is at once unborn and unwanted.
The decision must be made once and for all _before_ the new life is
called into initial being, and the last word must lie with her who is to
bear it. I am strengthened in the enunciation of this principle by the
reflection that it would be ridiculed and condemned by the vote of every
public-house and music-hall throughout the civilized world.

Let it be observed that in thus allowing the wife the possession of her
own person, we are giving her only what her husband possesses, and that
her possession of herself is of vastly more moment to her than his own
liberty to him. Nothing more than sheer equality is being claimed for
her, and