Oliver Wendell Holmes

Man at present is a predatory animal. I think that the sacredness of human life is a purely municipal idea of no validity outside the jurisdiction. I believe that force, mitigated so far as it may be by good manners, is the ultima ratio, and between two groups that want to make inconsistent kinds of world I see no remedy except force.

As I have said, no doubt, often, it seems to me that all society rests on the death of men. If you don't kill'em one way you kill'em another--or prevent their being born. Is not the present time an illustration of Malthus?

It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.<br/>Three generations of imbeciles are enough.