Speech at the National Conference on the Work of Family Planning (Excerpts) (December 2, 1986)

I totally agree with Comrade Zhao Ziyang's opinion. What I am primarily concerned about is the problem of eugenics and optimal childbirth. Why did I ask Comrade He Jiesheng to speak on this issue? [Comrade He Jiesheng, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Health, made a report on the issue of eugenics and optimal childbirth at this conference.—Ed.] It is because this is not simply a matter for one department, and not merely a matter for the educational circles. It is a problem for the whole society, including fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers. The question is how we can make the problem of eugenics a question of scientific knowledge so that everyone will know about it, and the problem of optimal childbirth also a question of scientific knowledge so that everyone would be engaged, at least for awhile, in propagandizing it. People who are fathers, mothers, grandfathers, and grandmothers all must know something about child psychology and nutrition; this cannot be achieved just by having the Ministry of Public Health do some propagandizing. Instead, we must make it a social problem to be propagandized constantly and regularly

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