ugenics aims to arouse
the enthusiasm or the interest of the people in the welfare of the world
fifteen or twenty generations in the future. On its negative side it
shows us that we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of
an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never
should have been born at all--that the wealth of individuals and of
states is being diverted from the development and the progress of human
expression and civilization.

While it is necessary to point out the importance of "heredity" as
a determining factor in human life, it is fatal to elevate it to the
position of an absolute. As with environment, the concept of heredity
derives its value and its meaning only in so far as it is embodied
and made concrete in generations of living organisms. Environment and
heredity are not antagonistic. Our problem is not that of "Nature vs.
Nurture," but rather of Nature x Nurture, of heredity multiplied by
environment, if we may express it thus. The Eugenist who overlooks the
importance of environment as a determining factor in human life, is as
short-sighted as the Socialist who neglects the biological nature of
man. We cannot disentangle these two forces, except in theory. To the
child in the womb, said Samuel Butler, the mother is "environment." She
is, of course, likewise "heredity." The age-old discussion of "Nature
vs. Nurture" has been threshed out time after time, usually fruitlessly,
because of a failure to recognize the indivisibility of these biological
factors. The opposition or antagonism between them is an artificial and
academic one, having no basis in the living organism.

The great principle of Birth Control offers the means whereby the
individual may adapt himself to and even control the forces of
environment and heredity. Entirely apart from its Malthusian aspect or
that of the population question, Birth Control must be recognized, as
the Neo-Malthusians pointed out long ago, not "merely as the key of the
social position," and the only possible and practical method of human
generation, but as the very pivot of civilization. Birth Control which
has been criticized as negative and destructive, is really the greatest
and most truly eugenic method, and its adoption as part of the program
of Eugenics would immediately give a concrete and realistic power to
that science. As a matter of fact, Birth Control has been accepted by
the most clear thinking and far seeing of