CHAPTER XII.

THE SCIENCE OF PROCREATION. The Relationship of the Science of Procreation to the Art of Love--Sexual Desire and Sexual Pleasure as the Conditions of Conception--Reproduction Formerly Left to Caprice and Lust--The Question of Procreation as a Religious Question--The Creed of Eugenics--Ellen Key and Sir Francis Galton--Our Debt to Posterity--The Problem of Replacing Natural Selection--The Origin and Development of Eugenics--The General Acceptance of Eugenical Principles To-day--The Two Channels by Which Eugenical Principles are Becoming Embodied in Practice--The Sense of Sexual Responsibility in Women--The Rejection of Compulsory Motherhood--The Privilege of Voluntary Motherhood--Causes of the Degradation of Motherhood--The Control of Conception--Now Practiced by the Majority of the Population in Civilized Countries--The Fallacy of "Racial Suicide"--Are Large Families a Stigma of Degeneration?--Procreative Control the Outcome of Natural and Civilized Progress--The Growth of Neo-Malthusian Beliefs and Practices--Facultative Sterility as Distinct from Neo-Malthusianism--The Medical and Hygienic Necessity of Control of Conception--Preventive Methods--Abortion--The New Doctrine of the Duty to Practice Abortion--How Far is this Justifiable?--Castration as a Method of Controlling Procreation--Negative Eugenics and Positive Eugenics--The Question of Certificates for Marriage--The Inadequacy of Eugenics by Act of Parliament--The Quickening of the Social Conscience in Regard to Heredity--Limitations to the Endowment of Motherhood--The Conditions Favorable to Procreation--Sterility--The Question of Artificial Fecundation--The Best Age of Procreation--The Question of Early Motherhood--The Best Time for Procreation--The Completion of the Divine Cycle of Life.