恋愛と結婚の分離?
未来の女性は,幸福をひどく犠牲にすることなく,優生学的な考慮(配慮)から子供の父親を選び,他方,普通の性的なつきあいでは,個人的感情のおもむくままに自由に高度することが,とても容易にできるようになるかもしれない。男性にとっては,子供の母親を,親として望ましいという理由で選ぶことが,いっそう容易になるだろう。 私のように,性行動は,子供を伴う場合(子どもが生まれた場合)に限って社会と関わってくる(関係してくる)と考えている者は,この前提から,将来の道徳に関して二重の結論を引き出すに違いない。即ち,一方では,子供と関係のない恋愛(子どもが生まれない恋愛)は自由であるべきであること,しかし,他方では,子供を作ることは,現在よりもずっと注意深く,道徳的考慮によって規制(調整)される問題(matter 事柄)であるべきだ,ということである。しかし,そのこと関係する考慮は,従来認められたものとはいくらか異なるだろう。ある場合の出産が道徳的と見なされるためには,牧師がある言葉を発したり,(戸籍)登記官がある書類を作成したりする必要(性)は,最早なくなるだろう。そういった行為が子供の健康や知能に影響するという証拠は,まったくないからである。 必要だと見なされること(の全て)は,当の男女が,(現在の)自分自身においても,自分たちが伝える遺伝の面においても,望ましい子供を生む見込みがあるようでなければならない,ということである。この問題について,科学が現在よりも確実な判断を下せるようになる時,社会の道徳的意識は,優生学的見地から見ていっそう厳格なものになるかもしれない。最も優れた遺伝子を持った男性が,父親として熱心に探し求められるようになるかもしれないし,一方,(それ以外の)他の男性は,愛人としては受け入れられるかもしれないが,父親になろうとすると,拒絶されるかもしれない。これまで存在してきた結婚制度では,こういった計画はいずれも人間性に背くものとされてきたので,優生学が実際に利用される可能性はきわめて少ない,と考えられていた。 しかし,人間性が,将来も同様な障壁を設けると想定しなければならない理由はない。というのは,避妊法によって,子供を生むことと,子供を伴わない性関係とが分離されつつあるし,父親も将来は,以前のように子供と個人的な関係を持たなくても済みそうであるからである(注:国家の関与がますます増大していくため)。過去の道学者たち(モラリストたち)が結婚に付与した厳粛さと崇高な社会的目的は,世界が倫理の面でもっと科学的になるなら,生殖だけに付与されることになるだろう。 |
Chapter XVIII: Eugenics, n.12From the standpoint of private morals, sexual ethics, if scientific and unsuperstitious, would accord the first place to eugenic considerations. That is to say that, however the existing restraints upon sexual intercourse might be relaxed, a conscientious man and woman would not enter upon procreation without the most serious considerations as to the probable value of their progeny. Contraceptives have made parenthood voluntary and no longer an automatic result of sexual intercourse. For various economic reasons which we have considered in earlier chapters, it seems likely that the father will have less importance in regard to the education and maintenance of children in the future than he has had in the past. There will therefore be no very cogent reason why a woman should choose as the father of her child the man whom she prefers as a lover or a companion. It may become quite easily possible for women in the future, without any serious sacrifice of happiness, to select the fathers of their children by eugenic considerations, while allowing their private feelings free sway as regards ordinary sexual companionship. For men it would be still easier to select the mothers of their children for their desirability as parents. Those who hold, as I do, that sexual behaviour concerns the community solely in so far as children are involved, must draw from this premise a twofold conclusion as regards the morality of the future. On the one hand, that love apart from children should be free, but on the other hand, that the procreation of children should be a matter far more carefully regulated by moral considerations than it is at present. The considerations involved will, however, be somewhat different from those hitherto recognized. In order that procreation in a given case may be regarded as virtuous, it will no longer be necessary that certain words should have been pronounced by a priest, or a certain document drawn up by a registrar, for there is no evidence that such acts affect the health or intelligence of the offspring. What will be considered necessary is that the given man and woman, in themselves and in the heredity which they transmit, should be such as are likely to have desirable children. When science becomes able to pronounce on this question with more certainty than is possible at present, the moral sense of the community may come to be more exacting from a eugenic point of view. The men with the best heredity may come to be eagerly sought after as fathers, while other men, though they may be acceptable as lovers, may find themselves rejected when they aim at paternity. The institution of marriage, as it has existed hitherto, has made any such schemes contrary to human nature, so that the practical possibilities of eugenics have been thought to be very restricted. But there is no reason to suppose that human nature will in future interpose a similar barrier, since contraceptives are separating procreation from childless sexual relations, and fathers are likely in future to have no such personal relation with their children as they have had in the past. The seriousness and the high social purpose which moralists in the past have attached to marriage will, if the world becomes more scientific in its ethics, attach only to procreation. |