Presentation - Oxford Brookes University - Department of History

Suitable for Parenthood:
The Eugenics of Reproductive Health in
Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain
Gayle Davis
(University of Edinburgh)
OBU, History of Medicine Seminar Series, 11 December 2012

Impetus for Feversham
• MacLennan v. MacLennan (1958) –
Lord Wheatley’s controversial
ruling that AID was not adulterous,
denying a husband divorce on
these grounds
• Public outrage followed the ruling

Interdepartmental Committee on
Artificial Insemination, 1958
(Feversham Committee)
• To enquire into existing practice
and its legal consequences; and to
consider whether any change in
the law is desirable
• Wide range of legal, medical and
religious witnesses approached to
give evidence

Lack of Experience
• 6 doctors known to be practicing
artificial insemination by donor
(AID) in UK – in Manchester (1),
Exeter (1), and London (4)
• 4-5 had dabbled in field but since
given up, including Glasgow (1)

‘Usually … such patients are of a
highly nervous disposition, frustrated
and introverted … their infertility
becomes almost obsessional. There is,
however, an occasional enquiry from
a different type of patient, whose
outlook on the problem is detached
and scientific.’
[Dr Hector Maclennan, Verbatim Report of
Oral Evidence, 10 February 1959]

‘who must be a small group of men called
upon by a smaller group of doctors. It is
therefore easily conceivable that two
children with the same father may later
mate and procreate. It is even possible that
a father may mate with his own daughter.
… This will lead to an exaggeration of all
characteristics of the genetic line, including
the bad ones, and, in the absence of means
of exterminating the weaklings, must result
in damage to the community.’
[‘Medicus’, Glasgow Herald, 1 March 1958]

‘How much more complicated
is the human being than the
Aberdeen Angus bull?’
[Dr. Hector Maclennan, Glasgow, Verbatim
Report of Oral Evidence to Feversham
Committee, 10 February 1959]

How do you solve a
problem like…
semen donation
• ‘considerable difficulty in
obtaining suitable material’
–Quantity
–Quality (physical,
psychological and moral)

‘prepared to give semen to a woman whose
mental and physical background is
unknown to him, and who is prepared to
father children who will be born into a
completely unknown environment, so far as
he is concerned, is a man whose ethical
standards are so unusual as to be of
doubtful value from a eugenic point of
view.’
[Dr Hector Maclennan, Verbatim Report of Oral
Evidence, 10 February 1959]