THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

Abstract

I enclose a portion of an address, "Epilepsy Then, Now and A Century Hence," delivered at the Centenary of the Boston University School of Medicine. In the belief that the subject discussed will become increasingly timely, I request space for it in "The Pediatrician and the Public." Pediatricians occupy a strategic position with respect to genetics and childbearing and, because of their associations, pediatricians should be unusually youthful minded and forward looking. From our little Mount Pisgah we have gazed hopefully toward the Promised Land of Epilepsy Control. Now we must descend to the common plain of economics. Fruitful research in any field depends primarily on inspired minds, but money, with its supporting stable politico-economy, seems increasingly important. What will be the state of the world a century hence? Who or what threatens its stability? At the moment we fear the power of the fissured atom. We physicians envy atomic scientists with their billions to spend, and we feel superior because our labors do not engender fears of catastrophic destruction. And yet, what will people think of us a century hence? By then, we are told, the population of the earth, excessive with respect to its natural or man-made resources, will present a wider and more insoluble menace to peace and prosperity than the split atom. For this menace our profession will be chiefly to blame. Medical science and public health forces have wonderfully reduced the scourge of sickness and death; but the doubled life span means a doubled population—and, for the added portion of that span, economic unproductivity. A passion for prolonging all lives, including the genetically unfit (coupled with war's destruction of the fit), has violated nature's plans for humanity's improvement. Flattered for past achievements in prolonging life, we physicians ignore the complementary problem of excessive births. We see no danger and cry no alarms. Knowing most about human genetics and the physiology, endocrinology and psychology of reproduction, we nevertheless have not grappled seriously with the vast problems involved in widespread efforts towards the limitation and the genetic improvement of the human breed.