British Professor advocates forced sterilization of “unfit” members of society

As if to confirm that the eugenics movement is still well and alive, a British Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences has added his voice to the call that the mentally and morally “unfit” should be permanently sterilized. Speaking on a BBC programme (Aug 28), Professor David Marsland’s focus at this time, is on people who neglect or abuse their children. According to Marsland, “Children are abused or grossly neglected by a very small minority of inadequate parents.” Such parents, he said, are distinguished by “a number of moral and mental inadequacies” caused by “serious mental defect,” “chronic mental illness” and drug addiction and alcoholism. In the opinion of Prof Marsland, “Short of lifetime incarceration,” the solution is “permanent sterilization.”
The question, of course, is why should permanent sterilization be the ONLY solution? In fact, it is one “solution” that introduces far more problems than the one it is supposedly addressing.
Brian Clowes, director of research for Human Life International, told LifeSiteNews that in his view Professor Marsland is just one more in a long line of eugenicists who want to solve human problems by erasing the humans who have them. Clowes compared Marsland to Lothrop Stoddard and Margaret Sanger, prominent early 20th century eugenicists who promoted contraception and sterilization for blacks, Catholics, the poor and the mentally ill and disabled whom they classified as “human weeds.”
A co-participant with Marsland on the BBC programme, Janet Radcliffe Richards, (Professor of Practical Philosophy at Oxford) further faulted the arguments. Apart from serious problems about who makes the decisions, and inevitable abuses, Radcliffe Richards doubts that proponents are actually sincere with the claims that they are trying to protect the children. According to her: “It’s curious case that if the child doesn’t exist, it can’t be harmed. And to say that it would be better for the child not to exist, you need to be able to say that its life is worse than nothing. Now I think that’s a difficult thing to do because most people are glad they exist.”