Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/250

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CONTRACEPTION

number of still-births, and also the mortality in the first week of life, were greater in the first-born; then, however, for a number of years, of those who survived, the vitality of the first-born was greater than of the other children.

In considering the "inferiority" ог "superiority" of an individual however, it is crude to forget their potential parenthood; and a careful study of Ewart's[1] very interesting paper will reveal not only the complexities of the necessary considerations, but also that "some credence can be given to the belief that those born during the declining years of life" . . . have a "low survival value of their offspring."

A fallacy which has wide currency in certain "reform" circles (particularly in working men's clubs where social reform is treated from the point of view of a material improvement in the position of the proletariat), is indicated in the cliché "all infants are born healthy." This is often used in argument against birth control, and generally has tacked on to it some such corollary as, that "therefore all would grow up

  1. ↑ R. J. Ewart (1917): "The Influence of Age of the grandparent at the birth of the parent on the number of children born and their sex." Journ. Hygiene, vol. xv (years 1915-1917). See pp. 127-162.

224

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.