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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Population and Migration - 7. Population - 4. Ends and Means of Population Policy - 5. Controlling the Death Rate
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Chapter 7. Population 171
to Negroes. We can see signs of this already in several of the Southern
states.
5. Controlling the Death Rate
Since there is no evidence at present that certain diseases are genetically
more characteristic or less characteristic of Negroes than of whites
although it is possible that slight differences in one direction or the other
may some day be revealed—^it is not necessary to single out Negroes for
special attention in any efforts to cure or prevent disease.® The application
of the equalitarian principles of ^^need” in the cure of disease and ill
health and of ^‘equality of opportunity” in their prevention—which are
our value premises in this section—^will suffice to eliminate any special
Negro disabilities.
If disease prevention work is to be effective, it must be planned on a
national basis without regard to the color of the inhabitants. In the South
as well as in the North there is an increasing popular recognition among
whites that ‘^diseases cannot be segregated,” and that high rates of death,
sickness, and poor health among Negroes carry tremendous social costs,
directly and indirectly, even if they cannot be calculated accurately in dollars
and cents.
There are special social costs connected with infant mortality. There
are costs to society as well as to the parents of bearing and raising a child
if it dies before it contributes to the world by its labor and other personal
qualities. From practically any point of view, it would be better not to have
certain children born at all rather than to have them die before completing
a normal lifetime. And if healthy children are born, it is in the interest of
everyone to see that they are given the opportunity to remain healthy.
These considerations apply to both Negroes and whites. But they apply
with greater forcefulness to Negroes since differential death rates reveal
that equalization of health conditions, even without advance in medical
knowledge or practice, would pull the Negro death rate down sharply. To
give Negroes adequate medical facilities fits in both with the equalitarian
Creed and with the interests of whites. The observer finds in the South that
the propaganda by experts and humanitarians regularly and bluntly makes
this appeal to ^^enlightened self-interest.”
Medical knowledge has advanced beyond medical practice, and medical
practice has advanced far beyond most people^s opportunity to take advan-
tage of it. A reduction in these lags would have tremendous consequences
for the well-being and happiness of every person in the nation. Of special
significance to the Negroes is the lag of opportunity for some people to
obtain the advantages of medical practices available to other people. Area
for area, class for class, Negroes cannot get the same advantages in the
* See Chapter 6, Section 2 .
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