would
better not be born_, is one that admits of no refutation.

From a biological point of view, then, it is to the interest of the race
that the number of children who will be either defective themselves, or
transmit anti-social defects to their offspring, should be as small as
possible.

2. The humanitarian aspect of the case is no less strong and is likely,
in the present state of public education, to move a larger number of
individuals. A visit to the children's ward of any hospital, an
acquaintance with the sensitive mother of a feeble-minded or deformed
child, will go far to convince anyone that the sum total of human
happiness, and the happiness of the parents, would be greater had these
children never been born. As for the children themselves, they will in
many cases grow up to regret that they were ever brought into the world.
We do not overlook the occasional genius who may be crippled physically
or even mentally; we are here dealing with only the extreme defectives,
such as the feeble-minded, insane, and epileptic. Among such persons,
human happiness would be promoted both now and in the future if the
number of offspring were naught.

3. There is another argument which may legitimately be brought forward,
and which may appeal to some who are relatively insensitive to the
biological or even the humanitarian aspects of the case. This is the
financial argument.

Except students of eugenics, few persons realize how staggering is the
bill annually paid for the care of defectives. The amount which the
state of New York expends yearly on the maintenance of its insane wards,
is greater than it spends for any other purpose except education; and in
a very few years, if its insane population continues to increase at the
present rate, it will spend more on them than it does on the education
of its normal children. The cost of institutional care for the socially
inadequate is far from being all that these people cost the state; but
those figures at least are not based on guesswork. The annual cost[78]
of maintaining a feeble-minded ward of the state, in various
commonwealths, is:

Illinois $136.50
Indiana 147.49
Minnesota 148.05
Ohio 155.47
Wisconsin 159.77
Kansas 170.16
Michigan 179.42
Kentucky 184.77
California 208.97
Maine 222.99

At such prices, each state maintains hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
feeble-minded, and t