Margaret Sanger - "Morality of Birth Control"
I feel as a woman, I have the right to "choice" of how and what I do or have done to my body....that is as well as my mind and soul.
Ethically I have "rights" as does every other human being does. Human Rights/Moral Rights - the right to life, simply by virtue of being human. We all have rights which are entitlement to possess; something due you. We have legal rights, for example, to own property (entitlement) or voting (negative right). Our negative rights are those we respect of "autonomy" and "equality" - that humans are in thier free pursuit of their interests (yes, western mindset of ethics).
Sanger speaks that society claims to support the notion that "every mother in this country, either sick or well, has the right to the best, the safest, the most scientific information." It is these moral rights she touches upon - that it is the right of women to have information to best be able to make decisions based upon - ones that affect her life, the future of humanity.
Sanger proclaims - "We claim that woman should have the right over her own body and to say if she shall or if she shall not be a mother, as she sees fit. We further claim that the first right of a child is to be desired; the second right is that it shoudl be conceived in love; the third, that it should have a heritage of sound health."
These are what both men & women, husband & wife, fathers & mothers hope and pray for - a healthy baby.....and that is being brought into this world with the desire to be loved and cherished. But that chance that a family, a women has a baby that has a sickness or disability .... that does not mean that the human is any less than any other human...that it would be loved any less because someone feels that it is different or not up to the standards of perfection....what are they measuring against?
Plato believed that everthing had two parts - The Form & The Matter. The soul was abstract, the invisible component of the person; the form was not corruptible; but the body (the matter) could be. If it got sick, it decays. Is this what Sanger meant when she described the "desire to stop at its source the disease, poverty and feeble-mindedness and insanity which exist today, for these lower the standards of civilization and make for race deterioration." She is preaching an inferior race.
She clearly catigorizes society into classes; three groups:
1. Intelligent and wealthy members of the upper class (ones that have already
practiced and seen the success of Birth Control by regulating the size of their
families);
2. A middle class that is equally intelligent and responsible; one that desires to
control the size of their families, but are unable to obtain knowledge or to put
such available knowledge into practice; and
3. The Irresponsible and Reckless ones having little regard for the consequence of
their acts, or whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over
their numbers.
She is bold to say that the procreation of the third group should be stopped - they are not able to support and care for themselves - how could they care for another?
She proclaims that it is society's right to step in and take the corrective course of action to save society - "We do not believe that filling the earth with misery, poverty and disease is moral."
Morality are the standards that an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil. When Sanger spoke of "WE" she is stating that the group of highly educated and wealthy members of society to which she is a member knows best for the less fortunate. That they have the moral rights to chose for them. She contradicts herself in her speech....she proclaims that women have the moral right to be left to freely persue and choose over their body -- "If opposed, the progressof women on the ground that her freedom would lead to immorality." She states, "speech and choice" belong to the "people" and that the subject can be discussed with "dignity and with intelligence." If that is so, why does she discriminate and reject the lesser class to be in such a discussion -- they are "people" too!!??!!
I do agree that "motherhood should be the function of dignity and choice, rather than one of ignorance and chance." But, when one thinks of ignorance and chance, it is that one is acting not responsible for their actions - not thinking of the outcomes, the consequences.....and WE ALL do that from time to time....So are we too categorized with them....people are human and we all do things without thinking sometimes....should we all be categorized as a lesser human that cannot make responsible decisions for us and society?
I feel that she practiced negative eugenics.
I would like to share some YouTube video (they may be propaganda but after watching...I have mixed thoughts about Sanger):
Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood's Racist Founder
Sir Francis Galton - Father of Eugenics
Mass Sterilization in the US
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