Breeding Poverty? Great Issues Lecture

People classified as "cultural familial retarded" form a segment of the U.S. population that is easily overlooked by society, yet constitutes a growing problem. Individuals with this inherited form of mental retardation (estimated to number in excess of 5 million) are reared in a culturally inferior milieu and have a need for life-long social support. The cultural familial retarded have no advocates to spontaneously champion their cause as other handicapping conditions do. This segment of the population is growing at a rate three to four times as fast as the general population. A three-point plan is proposed: (1) Government must become advocates of the cultural familial retarded, and must recognize them as individuals who are permanently locked in the grip of poverty and intellectual inability. (2) Society must come to grips with the uncomfortable topic of birth control in situations where the procreators are intellectually incapable of making rational decisions which are in their best interests and in the best interest of society. (3) New focus should be given to counseling the cultural familial retarded to help them fend better in society and to help them delay, control, and terminate the procreative process to achieve a more manageable family situation. (JDD)