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A Plea for the Lives of the Unborn *By Barnett M

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A Plea for the Lives of the Unborn *By Barnett M 200 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Vol.7, No. Z% A PLEA FOR THE LIVES OF THE UNBORN *BY BARNETT M. RHETTA, M. D., Baltimore, Md. A plea for the lives of the unborn di- portance of such a course should do 'vides itself at once into a plea for bet- more to urge it upon the various school tter development of prospective parents, boards. Several cities have tried this ;a plea for more rigid methods aiming to idea out and for the most part pro- 'protect the prospective parents from nounced it a failure and it has been and destruction or parylization, both from will be a failure when teachers for such within and without,-a plea for a high- a subject are poorly selected. er regard for motherhood by both sexes The boys and girls should be taught and a better support of maternal care by among many other things, that a very fatherhood,-a plea for more marked large majority of those who indulge in regard for that which destroys the pos- sexual intercourse, especially between sibility of conception, as well as that puberty and the marriageable age which destroys life after conception has are diseased. They should be taught taken place. This consideration, when that the first element of attraction taken further, becomes a plea for the should be health, and in this day, when morals, for the life, for the very soul disease is so flourishing, all should be re- of the race of man. garded as diseased until proven other- Obviously, in this meeting, where a wise. The idea of health certificates professional consideration is required, before marriage is certainly not a bad we propose to restrict our discussion. one. For convenience, let us discuss the At this age, and certainly early in lives of the unborn with reference to marriage, men should be taught the the ages of the prospective and possible common mechanism of the so-called parents. idiopathetic sterility. Men should Let us begin with our subject between know that the making and mixing of puberty and the marriageable age. Ac- the semen within the seminal glands is cording to public opinion, at this age not unlike the making and mixing of the prospective parent should be kept mortar in the mechanical mixers com- in utter darkness as regards this most monly seen on the street works. important consideration. At school, children study every other thing both They should thoroughly understand valuable and unimportant but very sel- that the glands that make and mix the dom do they hear a word relating to semen are by far the most delicate the care of the sex. The direct result parts of the human system. They is utter ignorance and consequent waste should be acquainted with the three of that power which is of all things most sets of glands there, and know that important. when gland A has finished its product, that product should travel into gland B We belive there should be a thorough and after gland B has finished wit it. course in sexology in all of the higher it should go into C, and from C where it schools. The doctor who sees the im- is completed, it continues through the *Read before the Maryland Medical, Dental vas into the seminal vesicle. and Pharmaceutical Association, December, In order to understand the mechan- 1914. ism of idiopathic sterility, they should A PLEA FOR THE LIVES OF THE UNBORN 201 be taught that several hours are re- is understood and need not be dealt with quired for each set of glands to com- here. Suffice it to say, that despite all plete its work, and consequently at theory regarding idiopathic sterility, least three times several hours should most sterility is still due to destruction elapse between the sexual act. of the seminal glands, or obstruction or They should understand thoroughly occlusion of their ducts, or changes in that the ducts of gland A normally emp- the blood, all by and due to disease. ty into B, and those of B normally For this reason, we cannot too much empty into C, and that C and C only emphasize prophylaxis. empties into the vas, which leads to the Referring to the female in the "wild seminal vesicle. Certainly they should oats" stage, we read with great interest understand that with every sexual a lecture by Ella W. Wilcox to women act, or every ejaculation, from what- of Chicago. She emphasized the ease ever cause, some of the glands, both A with which men and women alike threw and B, and occasionally C, rupture di- themselves away, the utter disregard rectly into the vas. Very few are rup- for future children by both sexes. But tured if the vesicle is full, but if it is the most radical statement in all of her empty, because of the strain on the little lecture was that no man, and certainly organs there to get material for ejacu- no woman, should indulge in the sexual lation, many are ruptured. The rup- act, unless his object was the having of tured parts in a manner heal, forming an offspring. A statement, when put artificial ducts, and from that time on, up against the facts in the case, that the contents of ruptured A for exam- is most startling. A statement with ple, instead of going through B and C which we may be able to agree, now and being completed, travel directly into that we are older and married, but which the vesicle and there form the required certainly should have met with our bulk, but in quality is not sufficiel<'t. hearty disapproval in earlier years. But, withal, a statement which merits a A thorough understanding of the me- more serious consideration. chanism of sterility will show the boy that by "running" alone, whether he The theory regarding the vaginal se- runs up against disease or not, he can cretions of certain otherwise normal soon lose all power to beget. So many women, how that they are deadly to married men cannot understand why both the ovum and spermatozoa,-and they stop with one child. A thorough consequently make impossible the understanding of the mechanism of ste- union of the germ cell,-is well known rility will remove the wonder )f tLis on to all of us, and in this meeting should the man's part. only be mentioned in passing. Fallo- pian tubes and other parts of the tract Not man, but only every professional that have to do with are often man should be on intimate terms gestation, every malformed, occluded or immature. works on with recognized sexology. These all go down as causes of sterility. We should urge that they be put in high Schools. If the school boards are indif- We mention sterility because we feel ferent, the doctor should instruct men at that no discussion of the welfare of the other r1aces where men can be gathered future child is in part complete without together. a mention of this subject. Sterility that has its origin in disease Keeping in mind the welfare of the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Vol. 7, No. 3 unborn child, let us come now to the on earth today, the paid executioner of married state. Right here is a great the helpless child. If we make no nien- amount of work needed. Here public tion of the abortionist, we have made no opinion needs rebuilding. Here is the plea for the lives of the unborn. There great danger to a race. Not only is are many abortionists posing as reputa- there an utter disregard for the future ble physicians, there are many abortion- child, not only is there not enough love ists who profess nothing but the knowl- for the child, but too often there is edge of the abortion. Whoever he is, and actual hatred on the part of married wherever he or she may be, he should people, for the child that is unborn. be marked. The laws. are too lax along This naturally leads to a dislike for this line. This body should enter a the child after it is born, which dislike protest to the city and State law making often follows it throughout life. bodies, regarding the laxity of such What physician has not been request- laws. ed by legitimately married patients to Let us deviate long enough to say, suppress normal conception What that in regards to the midwife, the phy- physician has not been urged to per- sician should protest, cry out, and con- form the abortion tinue to cry out, until all midwives are Public opinion on this point is just driven out, for they are a dangerous what it should not be, and the Doctor foe to the unborn. should start the work of changing it. They usually mean well, but in their We have heard intelligent people, we ignorance, they often cause death, or have heard a few physicians say, that mar the infant at its beginning of life. the problem was not how to have chil- We referred to the present day prac- dren, but to keep from having them. tice of Eugenics. Let us see what rela- A thing was never more wrong. tion it has to our subject. Eugenics With all living things, the great prob- has been defined as "That science which lem is, and ever will be, how to perpetu- deals with influences that improve the ate life. This is the meaning of nature. unborn qualities of the race." In other This is the one great reason for ma- words, it is that science which tends to turity.
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