The Sexual Question Part 38

When, on the contrary, a male minor seduced by an adult woman, makes her pregnant, it is the woman only who is responsible for the maintenance of her child, and there are no reasons to accord her the right of abortion, for it is she who desired the s.e.xual act. The close bonds which exist between the child and its mother justify such legal dispositions.

With regard to civil laws, we have mentioned the case of venereal infection after coitus. In this case civil indemnity would be most equitable. A penal action could only be based on prosecution by the injured party, unless it was a question of directly criminal intent--infection for vengeance, for example.

=Incest.=--Under the heading of _consanguineous marriages_, we have seen to what extent the conception of incest should be limited, in respect to civil law. The grave cases of incest are those between parents and children. Their normal causes are mental anomalies, alcoholism, proletarian promiscuity, or isolation of a family in some remote place. Incest is common, in Switzerland especially, among the inhabitants of isolated mountain chalets. I will give a few typical and genuine examples of incest giving rise to penal actions:

(1). A drunken and brutal husband persecuted his wife with excessive coitus. The latter then gave him her own daughter to satisfy his violence.

(2). An inebriate woman induced her own son, aged seventeen, to have intercourse with her. Infuriated at the idea that his mother had made him her lover, he murdered her one day when he was drunk. Condemned as a parricide, this young man conducted himself in prison in a model manner. Alcohol, combined with his incestuous seduction, had made him the murderer of his mother.

(3). In a family composed exclusively of imbeciles and psychopaths, some of whom were put under my care for treatment, incest was practiced among nearly all of them; between father and daughters; between mother and sons; and between brothers and sisters.

The last case, and many others, show that incest is not the cause but the effect of mental disorders. This does not mean that the offspring of such unions are not slightly tainted by the mere fact of such concentrated incest, but these cases are comparatively so rare that they do not contribute to any appreciable extent, as incest, in causing degeneration of the race; the factor which causes degeneration is here mental disease, which arises from other hereditary causes, chiefly of blastophthoric origin.

From what we have said it results that a penal action for incest should only take place in the case of minors or insane persons, abuse of strength or power, or rape. The measures of civil law should suffice to reduce other cases of incest to a minimum.

The disgust which the generality of men feel for s.e.xual union between brothers and sisters, and especially between parents and children, is the best protection against incest. The elimination of alcoholism, the superintendence of the insane, and the improvement of our social organization are much more likely than penal laws to lead to the gradual disappearance of incest.

=a.s.saults on Minors.=--All a.s.saults on minors should naturally be prosecuted. But prosecution should take a different form according as the culprit is affected with a pathological perverse disposition, or whether it is simply a question of abuse of confidence committed by a normal man. A master who, having no s.e.xual anomaly, commits a.s.saults on young girls, his pupils, should be deprived of the right of teaching in girls' schools, for it is only there that he is dangerous.

If, on the other hand, he is affected with perversion (pederasty, etc.), further measures for protection should be taken against him; according to the circ.u.mstances.

=s.e.xual Perversions.=--When we pa.s.s, on to s.e.xual perversions, the inconsequences and mysticism of our present penal law become still more apparent. This code often prosecutes and punishes s.e.xual actions which do no harm to any one, or which two persons practice of their own accord. Such cases may be suitable for moral or medical treatment, but should never justify a penal prosecution. This applies to all the manipulations of onanism, pederasty, masochism, fetichism, etc., which take place between adults by mutual agreement.

What is the use of prosecuting inverts? It is a fortunate thing for society that these psyhcopaths are contented with their mutual s.e.xual intercourse, the result of which is sterile and therefore does no harm to posterity. The real crime is the marriage of an invert to an individual of the opposite s.e.x, and yet this crime is sanctioned by the law! It is a crime against the normal conjoint and against the children who may result from such an unhappy union. By severely punishing h.o.m.os.e.xual intercourse, the penal laws of many countries provoke the lowest form of blackmail, as Krafft-Ebing, Moll, Hirschfeld and others have proved by numerous examples, and as I have myself confirmed among many of my patients.

It is quite another thing with abnormal or perverse forms of the s.e.xual appet.i.te, which can only be satisfied against the will of their object, or by injuring it more or less severely. Here it is the duty of the law to organize energetic measures of protection; not with a view to punish the pervert, who is a diseased person, but to protect his victims in time.

We will first deal with _sadism_; secondly with the violation of children. Here a very delicate question arises. In the case of such terrible s.e.xual appet.i.tes we should not wait for victims before taking action. On the other hand, we cannot punish a man, nor even take administrative measures against him, simply from the fact that he possesses a dangerous appet.i.te, especially if he is in other respects well-behaved and conscientious, and strives with all his might against his perversion. I have treated a patient who suffered from a terrible pathological appet.i.te of this kind. He was a highly moral man who never harmed any one, but was in a state of despair over his affliction, which he resisted with all his power, seeking relief in masturbation when his pa.s.sion became too violent.

In such cases, the moral sentiments of an individual offer sufficient social protection, and it is neither the right nor the duty of the physician to denounce him. But he should advise the patient to retire to an asylum to avoid committing a crime, if he feels that he cannot restrain his pa.s.sions. It is very rare for such cases to come to the knowledge of the public, for these patients prefer to suffer in silence or to commit suicide; but they are none the less instructive and characteristic.

At other times dangerous perversions are discovered by chance, the pervert, instead of resisting his pa.s.sion, seeking opportunities to satisfy it without discovery. In such cases strong measures should be enforced. Unfortunately, s.a.d.i.s.ts are very well aware of the dangers they run, and know better than any other criminals how to commit their crimes without being discovered. As soon as the perpetrator of a sadic crime is discovered, or simply an attempt at sadism, he should be arrested and placed where he can do no harm. The question of castration arises here: but we do not know yet how far this protects the s.a.d.i.s.t and his victim against recurrence. If this operation proves efficacious it should never be neglected.

The _exhibitionists_ present great difficulty. They are not dangerous, since they touch n.o.body. Their "victims," if they can be called so, are girls or women before whom they expose their genital organs and m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e. No doubt modesty may be much offended by such acts, especially in young girls and children; disgust and fear may also harm them; but I think the law is too severe in these cases, for there is no question of an injury which is dangerous in itself. I have known little girls who have been frightened several times by exhibitionists, but I have never known them injured by the disgust which they experienced. The affair is too ridiculous and too ugly. It would be sufficient to send exhibitionists to an asylum for short periods, unless extreme weakness on their part necessitated prolonged detention.

Simple _necrophilia_ should be treated in the same way by penal law.

But this perversion is more dangerous on account of its relationship with sadism. There are some s.a.d.i.s.ts who are only necrophiliacs for fear of becoming a.s.sa.s.sins. Such individuals are very dangerous and should be kept in confinement.

The _fetichists_ are, on the contrary, generally very innocent. At the most they might be prosecuted for theft when they take away their fetiches. One of their worst misdemeanors is that of cutting off the hair of young girls.

=Concubinage. Prost.i.tution. Proxenetism. White Slavery.=--We have already seen that concubinage should never be punishable in itself, although it is so in some countries. We shall not again return to the question whether prost.i.tution should be the object of judicial and penal actions. Proxenetism and white slavery, on the contrary, cause grave injury to the rights of many individuals and should be made criminal offenses; for they are crimes against society and the individual, and committed for lucre. It cannot be legal to do commerce with the body of one's neighbor: this is a crime which is closely related to slavery and similar abuses. (Vide Chapter X.)

The law should punish all public solicitation, obscenity or s.e.xual brutality, but the punishment should take a milder form. The s.e.xual act and everything connected with it should be absolutely free, but a man has no right to provoke or annoy his neighbor by indecent s.e.xual invitations if the latter does not wish to respond to them.

It is, however, extremely difficult to fix the limits of what is licit, for prudery may also go too far and regard the most innocent allusions as provocations. It is absolutely necessary to leave a margin for normal s.e.xual invitations. All that is required is that they should not overstep the limits of recognized propriety, so long as there is not mutual agreement between the two parties. (Vide _Flirtation_, Chapter IV.)

=Lewdness. p.o.r.nography.=--The question naturally presents itself of knowing how far it is permitted to proceed publicly with a mutual agreement without causing offense or injury to other parties. On the whole, our customs are free enough in this respect, and a greater liberty in public flirtation would be inconvenient. For instance, lewd exhibitions, coitus, etc., could not be allowed in public places.

Children especially should be protected against such excitations of the s.e.xual appet.i.te, and it is necessary to fix a legal distinction between what is offensive and what is not offensive to public propriety or modesty.

Simple police regulations are sufficient for this purpose, but they are very necessary to protect women and children, and occasionally young men, against importunities or s.e.xual obsessions, against s.e.xual solicitation, or even against a.s.sault or other offenses, such as incitement to masturbation, obscene words and gestures, etc.

It is, no doubt, very difficult to define the limits. Our modern customs have left a large margin for p.o.r.nography, which they treat like a spoiled child. The most dangerous form, however, is not that which flaunts itself in shop windows, by advertis.e.m.e.nts and placards, in public kiosks and dancing rooms; but the refined and aesthetic p.o.r.nography which appears in the form of elegant engravings, erotic novels and dramas, under the cloak of art and even under that of morality.

Unfortunately, the public is a very bad judge of these things. Certain books have openly and fearlessly described the s.e.xual vices of our time--for example, Zola's novels and the dramas of Brieux--and these have been stigmatized as p.o.r.nographic. As a matter of fact their authors in no way merit such a reproach. Such works in no way encourage immorality; on the contrary, they inspire disgust and a healthy and holy terror at the perversity of our s.e.xual customs. No doubt such works may have an erotic action on ignorant and low-minded persons. The Tyrolean peasants, in their moral indignation, have been known to destroy the marble statues of women erected in public places.

Such acts serve no purpose, for prudery will never rid the world of eroticism; it will only increase it by leading to hypocrisy. We have something better to do than persecute and insult true art and men of talent or genius who expose our social perversions.

p.o.r.nography is quite another thing. It is not contented with representing the aesthetic, licit, and normal side of natural eroticism. It does not depict s.e.xual vice so as to emphasize its ugliness and its tragic consequences, but to glorify it. Whether it is represented as brazen nudity unadorned, or enveloped in a transparent veil which reveals everything it pretends to hide; whether it reels in baccha.n.a.lian orgies; whether it appears in brilliant fancy dress illuminated by electric lights, or in the discreet light of a fashionable boudoir; whether it is clearly revealed or equivocal, perverted in one way or depraved in another; in all its forms its aim is to tickle, to excite, to seduce, to allure, by arousing lewdness and inflaming its lowest pa.s.sions.

The p.o.r.nographic dishes are often served up with a sentimental and moral sauce which naturally does not tend to hide the flavor of the meat--for then all its charm would be gone--on the contrary it increases its spicy quality by means of contrast, at the same time making the product more marketable; this hypocritical disguise giving it a certain varnish of propriety. The trick of clothing p.o.r.nographic articles with the mantle of virtue may deceive the artless, and give the less artless excuse for buying them without putting themselves to any inconvenience. In such cases it is extremely difficult to act without injustice and without doing injury to art and science by vexatious measures. This requires much tact and rare perspicacity.

=Other s.e.xual Misdemeanors.=--Many s.e.xual a.s.saults are committed on the insane and feeble-minded, in the hope that they will not defend themselves and denounce the criminal. We have mentioned the case of inverts who become attendants in lunatic asylums in order to satisfy their appet.i.tes. Such crimes should be cla.s.sed with those committed against minors. In the first place it is necessary to take into account the special dangers they present, and in the second place, the personality of the criminal, his capacity for repentance, improvement, and self-control.

=Artificial Abortion.=--It is a difficult question to decide whether a woman should have the right to dispose of the embryo she carries in her womb, and the duties of society with regard to this question. It is certainly the duty of society to protect the child as soon as it is born. In this case the laws cannot be too severe in protecting the child from unnatural parents, or from the "baby farmers," whose business is to get rid of the infants by starving them or exposing them to disease.

It is the same with a.n.a.logous abuses which we have mentioned with regard to civil law. These crimes or misdemeanors very often result as much from the economic organization of our society, as from want of protection for infancy and girl-mothers, as well as from the shame with which the latter are branded by our hypocritical customs.

The question becomes more difficult with regard to the embryo _before birth_. Should the law punish artificial abortion? Opinions on this question vary. I have already said that in cases of rape, and forced pregnancy in general, the right to artificial abortion should be conceded to the woman. On the other hand, I think it should be prohibited on principle when the fecundating coitus has been voluntary on both sides, and when there is no medical reason for such a measure.

In principle, the human embryo, when once conceived, should have the right to live. Birth is only an episode in its life. This generally takes place at the end of the ninth lunar month of pregnancy, but a child born at the seventh month is often viable. It is, therefore, arbitrary not to recognize the right of the embryo to live. On the contrary, the right that a woman has to dispose of her body would seem to outweigh this, when conception has been imposed on her by stratagem or violence. In fact, the right of the embryo to life should depend on the wish of the bearers of each of the two germs by which it is formed, at the moment of conception.

On the other hand, numerous exceptions to the above rule should be allowed, and doctors should not be too severe, for it would be for them to decide in most cases whether artificial abortion was licit or not. Some pregnancies are a veritable misfortune for the parents and offspring, when the bodily and mental health of the mother or child, or both of them, is in danger. When a lunatic or an idiot, married or not, makes a woman pregnant, artificial abortion should be allowed; also in all cases when an insane or epileptic woman becomes pregnant.

An a.n.a.logous case is that where a drunkard renders his wife pregnant against her will, especially when he is intoxicated at the moment; for the offspring runs a great risk of blastophthoria.

It is needless to say that abortion should be permitted whenever pregnancy seriously endangers the life or health of the mother, or when a grave disease in the mother condemns the child to become an invalid. On the other hand, such indications should not be acted on too lightly; a rational limit is here a matter of practice and common sense, combined with medical science.

=The Right to Live of Monsters, Idiots, or the Deformed.=--The preceding remarks naturally lead us to the question whether children who are born invalids, deformed, or idiots, etc., should be necessarily condemned to live by the law, and whether special dispositions should not be made for such cases.

The obligation to preserve, often by means of all the resources of medical science, miserable creatures, born as cretins or idiots; children with hydrocephalus or microcephalus, without eyes or ears, or with atrophied genital organs, etc., is an atrocity sanctioned by the law. Would it not be better to allow these miserable beings to be suppressed by means of a painless narcosis, with the consent of the parents and after an expert medical opinion, instead of condemning them by law to a life of misery? Science has proved that every congenital malformation of the brain is as incurable as that of any other organ.

Here again our legislation is fettered by ignorance and religious dogma. On one hand, immense armies are organized to kill the most healthy men by thousands and tens of thousands, and many more thousands are abandoned to famine, prost.i.tution, alcoholism and exploitation; on the other hand, medicine is expected to employ its whole art and efforts in prolonging life as long as possible and thus martyrizing miserable human wretches, degenerate in body and mind or both, often when they cry out for death!

Large asylums are built for idiots, and there is much joy when after many years of persevering effort some devoted person succeeds in teaching these beings, whose mentality is far inferior to that of a monkey, to repeat a few words like a parrot, to scribble some words on paper, or to repeat a prayer mechanically with their eyes turned toward heaven!

It is difficult to compare these two facts without feeling the bitter irony of what are euphemistically called our hereditary customs. In truth, the nurses and teachers who devote themselves to the education of cretins and idiots would do better to occupy themselves in some manual work; or even leave the idiots to die, and themselves procreate healthy and capable children in their place! But this question does not properly belong to our subject.

=The Rights of the Embryo.=--A distinction is generally made between artificial abortion practiced in the first months of pregnancy and that induced in the later months. When the child is born viable, the term premature labor is used. When this is induced with the object of getting rid of the child the penalty is much more severe than for abortion, for it is regarded almost as infanticide.

For this reason, and owing to the difficulty of the whole question, a mother should never be given the right to destroy the embryo or child in her womb, excepting in cases where pregnancy has been forced upon her. Each case should be submitted to a medical examination, and a doctor's certificate should be required. This is all the more indicated since our present knowledge makes it easy to prevent pregnancy by anticonceptional measures. Society is, therefore, ent.i.tled to demand that a mother who has voluntarily conceived a child has no right to interrupt its development, _i.e._, to kill it. If, as we hope, we shall eventually obtain more extended rights for women and greater s.e.xual liberty in general, even in marriage, the reasons justifying artificial abortion, apart from medical or hygienic measures, will become more and more rare.

The stigma of shame which is branded on illegitimate maternity unfortunately justifies many cases of abortion and even infanticide.

Things ought to change in this respect, and in the future no pregnancy ought to be a source of shame for any healthy woman whatever, nor furnish the least motive for dissimulation.

If the objection is raised that I am inconsistent; that every man, and consequently every woman, should have the power to dispose of their own body on every occasion, and that penal law should therefore take no cognizance of artificial abortion, I reply that this does not apply to the case in point; for it is here a question, not of one body, but of two or more (in the case of twins). From the moment of conception the embryo acquires a social right which merits all the more protection, the more its possessor is incapable of looking after it.

=Adultery.=--Adultery, which even at the present day is often considered as a crime or misdemeanor, should be simply regarded as a reason for divorce. We have already treated the question with regard to civil law, and have shown the futility of trying to obtain fidelity by law. In my opinion, the misdemeanor of adultery should be entirely abolished from penal law. When it is complicated by fraud or other crimes, it is the latter only which are concerned.

=Human Selection.=--The indirect danger to which children of bad heredity are exposed const.i.tutes a grave social evil. At present, penal law is absolutely impotent in this matter. We have seen what civil law might perhaps effect, and what is already done in some countries. In another chapter we shall discuss much more appropriate measures for improvement in this domain.

We have already mentioned castration and certain cases in which it might be practiced. These cases will always be very limited, and it is on the basis of social morality and hygiene of the race that the question of conception should be regulated in a rational and voluntary manner. We shall obtain much more in this way than by legal measures, which are always lame because they interfere with individual liberty.