Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)

policies have become an accepted part of governmental development programs, and familyplanning is under government auspices. Cf. also BERELSON, B. (1970): Science, 169: 931 (editorial). 537 This was said in September 1956, on the eighth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The declaration was made by Chou-en-Lai. Yet, Mao Tse-Tung (1957) belives that large population is a safety against defeat; furthermore, people are also producers and "when there is a large population there is also the possibility of greater production and more accumulation" (Liu Shao-Chi, in 1958). Thus, the birth control campaign had its ups and downs in China, and now it is going on under the pretense that it is for the protection of the mother's health and of the family equilibrium. Cf. FREEBERNE, M. (1964/65): Population Studies 5-16. Also SILBERMAN I.e. footn. 402. 538 Cf. PLOETZ I.e. footn. 105. Euthanasia is decided and provided by a Board of Physicians. The plan of PLOETZ much resembles PLATO's utopistic republic. 539 Cf. McKIM W. D. (1900): Heredity and Human Progress. N.Y. "It is among the many defectives thrown upon the State for maintenance and the many vicious held in restraint by the State on account of their crimes, that a system of elimination seems practicable.

.. it is thus by an artificial selection that is proposed to elevate the human race. The surest, the simplest, the kindest, and most human means for preventing reproduction among those whom we deem unworthy of this high privilege, is a gentle painless death; and this should be administered not as a punishment but as an expression of enlightened pity..."

—In 1904 before the U.S. National Prison Association, Dr. Henry HATCH also suggested that the incurable insane and confirmed criminals might well be killed (Cf. ĤALLER, I.e. footn. 437, 207.). 540 Cf. BERTILLON I.e. footn. 378-245. In a Budapest hospital, once in the 1920-ies, it was my lot as a prosector to autopsy a week'old baby who had no extremities, and whom the hospital staff let die by absolute starvation. 541 In 1939, Germany supplemented eugenic sterilization with euthanasia, and in two years disposed of some 50 000 incurably insane, feebleminded, and deformed patients in the gas chambers. Cf. REITLINGER I.e. footn. 530,127: reprints HITLER'S handwritten letter to Philip BOUHLER in which authority is given "that patients who are considered incurable in the best available human judgement after critical evaluation of their condition, can be granted mercy killing ("der Gnadentod gewehrt werden kann")". See also CHRÓSCIELEWSKI e. and CELINSKI W. (1969): "Pseudoeutanazja w »Kraju Wartÿ« podczas okupacji hitlerowskiej", Przegl. Rék., 25,

42. 542 Cf. ATTINGER R. C. W. (1964): The Prospect of Immortality, N. York. 543 Cf. WATSON (1952): Popul. Studies, v. V, 261-286, on birth control and abortion in France since 1939. The use of modern efficient birth control devices has been made virtually impossible in France (264). 544 In 1946, on the International, Congress on Family and Population (held at Bruxelles), F. BOVERAT considered abortion a scarcely extenuated form of infanticide or assassination. Cf. also BOVERAT (1944): Le massacre des innocents. Paris.

—Abortionists are called "assasins de la patrie". See also SUTTER, J. (1950): U

eugénique, méthodes, résultats, Paris. He advocates that the family size should be in accord with the needs of the nation. 545 More than 150 years ago, man's intellectual improvement by breeding was oversimplified by LE JEŲNE, Robert (1801): Essai sur la mégalanthropogénésie: "It is no more difficult to have intelligent children than to have an Arab horse, a short-legged basset hound, or a pure-bred canary.

.. Marry an intelligent man to an intelligent woman and you will get men of genius."

— Cf. also QUINET, E. (1803-1875): La Creation: man has to pass and a creature will succeed him who will surpass man. What would man do? "He would perish rather than become his successor's pet or cattle." Q. by. ROSTAND, J. (1959): Can Man Be Modified? N.Y., 94. 546 DARWIN, C. (1882): Descent of Man: '"We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind.

.. .this must be highly injurious to the race of man." Cf. also MUCKERMANN (1932): Vererbung, Potsdam: "Die Liebe zu den Hilfsbedürftigen, die an sich die höchste Tugend in der Kultur ist, wird der Kultur selbst zum Verhängnis" (9.). 547 At the Commemorative 25th Anniversary of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization in 1970, Pope Paul VI, made the statement: "Indeed, in the face of the difficulties to be overcome, there is a great temptation to use one's authority to diminish the number of guests rather than to multiply the bread that is to be shared."