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Jane Addams Kichard Clements 41';' ,} This F LY REC . Vol. 66 No. 3 MARCH 1961 Sixpence Editorial Notes by Custos Is there a Scientific Ethi0 Dr. W. E. Swhiton Jane Addams kichard Clements 41';' ,} Ethics of Endowment—I F. H. A. Micklewright Book Reviews Corregpondence South Place News Society's Other Activities Published by SOUTH PLACE ETHCAL SOCRETY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WCi Chancery 8032 SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK March 5—E. ROYSTON PEKE, J.P. The Mind of Eden Phillpott - Flute Solos by OLIVIA LEWIS Hymn: No. 136 March 11—RICHARD CLEMENTS, 32., 0.B.E. The Bible: Why a New Translation? Bass Solos by G. C. DOWMAN Though I Speak with the Tongues of Men Brahms Onc Thing Befalleth. Brahms Hymn: No. 226 March 19—Dr. W. E. SWINTON, F.R.G.S. (Palaeontologist) Livingstone's Africa Piano Solos by JOYCE LANGLEY Hymn : No. 45 March 26-0. IL MaeGREGOR, B.Sc. Sexual Morality Soprano Solos byVALERIE KITCHEN Hymn: No. 120 SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS,10th Sehimn Concerts 6.30 p.m. (Doom open 6 p.m.) Admission 26. March 5—MACGIBBON STRING QUARTET. JEAN STEWART Haydn in D minor, Op. 9, No. 4; Schoenberg No. 4, Op. 37; String Quartets. Dvorak in E flat, Op. 97; String Quintet. •.. •- March 124.0NDoN STRING QUARTET Haydn in C, Op. 20, No. 2; Shostakovitch No. 5; Beethoven in F minor, Op. 95. March 19--WANG STRING QUARTET Haydn in F, Op. 77, No. 2; Brahms in B flat, Op. 67; Beethoven in F, Op 135. ' March 26—AM1CI STRING QUARTET Haydn in E. Op. 54, No. 3; Schoenberg No. 3, Op. 30; Beethoven in E flat, Op. 74. April 2—NO CONCERT The Monthly Record is posted free to members and Associates. The Annual charge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication in the April issue should reach the Editor, G. C. Dowman, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1, by March 6. The MONTHLY RECORD Vol. 66, No. 3 MARCH 1961 Sixpence CONTENTS EDITORIAL .. NOTES OF THE MONTH,Cnstos 4 IS THERE A SCIENTIFIC ETHIC? D. W. Swinton JANE ADDAMS, Richard Clements .. 11 ETHICS OF ENDOWMENT—L F. H. A. Micklewright 13 BOOK REVIEWS 15 CORRESPONDENCE 16 SOUTH PLACE NEWS 19 SOCIETY'S OMER ACTIVITIES 19 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society. EDITORIAL DR. HELEN ROSENAU has provided us with a very pleasing piece of news. She has recently been appointed senior lecturer to the History of Art Department of the University of Manchester. We offer our hearty congratulations to one who is always greatly appreciated when she lectures at Conway Hall. The Retiring Archbishop Dr. Geoffrey Fisher will retire in May full of honour. He has been Archbishop of Canterbury since 1945 and prior to then was Bishop of Chester and Bishop of London; for twenty-one years he was a schoolmaster, being the youngest headmaster that Repton had ever had. His genial good humour made him popular, yet his love of exhibitionism caused him to make indiscreet remarks from time to time, which embarrassed his friends. Whether his recent visit to Rome as the first Archbishop of Canterbury to do so for nearly 600 years was another example of this unfortunate trait we may never know, or whether it 3 was to confer with the head of the Roman Church on the menace of communism and perhaps even of rationalism. The rapid growth of the latter must have caused them grave concern. Dr. Fisher succeeded one of England's greatest archbishops, Dr. William Temple, and the question may arise in the minds of many churchmen as to whether he will rank as another great archbishop. We may safely leave that to history. The New Archbishop Dr. Arthur Michael Ramsey, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, as one grown up in the High Church tradition, may well cause a few flutters in ecclesiastical circles. In fact, he has already said: "The Church must live its own life and it must have some authority over the ordering of its own affairs, particularly over its worship, and we shall presently be asking the state for a greater degree of autonomy to manage our own affairs. I have no doubt we shall get that and will use it wisely." But many churchmen have been brought up in a different tradition and would, perhaps, not agree as to what is the Church's own life. Dr. Ramsey is essentially a scholar and was greatly respected when he was Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Dr. F. W. Coggan will succeed Dr. Ramsey as Archbishop of York. Both archbishops have been noted for speaking their minds and there is little doubt that much strength has been added to the Church of England. Very interesting developments may be expected. Notes by Custos Therapeutic A bortion THERAPEUTIC ABORTION iS Scarcely a pleasant subject, yet it is one which should concern all progressive persons. As the law of England stands, it is a criminal offence to interfere with any pregnancy from the moment of conception, save within carefully defined medical limits affecting the life or sanity of the expectant mother. Yet the law is frequently broken and, from time to time, both qualified medical practitioners as well as unqualified persons receive severe sentences in the criminal courts. Many have grown dissatisfied with this situation and have come to feel that the existing law is based solely upon a supernatural view of the entry of the soul into the conceived foetus, an objection irrelevant to all save those who accept a traditional Christian theology. Until the third month of pregnancy, the operation is not dangerous and can be performed with safety under proper conditions. An unwanted pregnancy may well prove an utter disaster to the expectant mother. It may cause economic stresses or difficulties of employment which the woman is unable to face. Within the conventional moral environment, illegitimacy is a social disgrace pressing down upon mother and child alike. For some reason or another, contraceptive tech- nique may have broken down and the family be thrown into economic difficulty by threatened enlargement. A woman may be harassed by over-much child- bearing and face another pregnancy with threat of psychological breakdown. Each of these reasons, or all of them taken together, afford sufficient debating points for enquiring whether or not the law as it stands is realistic in its approach. Nobody looks upon abortion with equanimity. It is analogous to an amputation and nobody regards an amputation as something to be desired in itself. From the practical angle, many women either turn to the unqualified back-street practitioner or seek to operate upon themselves. Again and again, there are disastrous results ending in a coroner's inquest or serious and permanent ill health. Clearly, the threat of a trial and a penalty will not prevent a desperate woman from seeking a remedy outside the law. Morally, it is certainly a question to consider whether or not a woman should have control over her own body and be free to decide for herself whether or not the pregnancy should go to its full term. Objections concerning the birth of a soul are a mere superstition to those who do not hold the particular theology making Lambeth Conference comments upon "the sin of abortion" into the veriest nonsense in the eyes of all save a small minority. In Law for the Rich (Gollancz, I5s.), Mrs. Alice Jenkins tells the story of the Abortion Law Reform Association and makes the point that, if one is wealthy enough, relief is already to hand. But she also tells many haunting stories of social tragedy which should be weighed by all progressive people. One of the great lessons of Ibsen was the manner in which he underlined the point that moral advance frequently comes by an attack upon the convention. Mrs. Alice Jenkins has pointed out that abortion is a subject where legal advance may well come by an attack upon the existing law. Inci- dentally, it is difficult for anybody but a lawyer to explain why a woman pleading pregnancy as a reason against execution on a capital charge has to prove a three months' term whilst an abortion is a crime from the moment of conception. The illogicality seems to be as remote from reality as is that of the theologian who attempts to treat the earlier phases of the foetus as analogous in moral standing to a separate human being. Thoughts on Chastity In 1958, there was considerable discussion concerning a British Medical Association brochure, Getting Married, because an article by Dr. Eustace Chesser treated pre-marital relationships as an open question and accepted the by no means uncommon fact of a bride already pregnant. The final result was that the brochure was withdrawn after a Christian-sponsored outcry, but Dr. Chesser has now expanded and published his article in book form. Is Chastity Outmoded? (Heinemann, 10s. 6d.) should certainly be thought over and con- sidered by the humanist. Besides impartial chapters which argue the case both on social and psychological grounds for and against pre-marital relationships, Dr. Chesser gives a very useful short account of changing views through the centuries concerning sex. Whilst he does not add anything new to the historical picture, he provides an excellent introduction for the general reader and one which all humanists should ponder. There is no universal ethic in any area of the question whilst, even within the Christian centuries, custom has changed again and again. For example, presumably no.
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