Princess of Mars ch7 pt6            But this counts for little among the green Martians, as
parental and filial love is as unknown to them as it is common among
us.  I believe this horrible system which has been carried on for
ages is the direct cause of the loss of all the finer feelings and
higher humanitarian instincts among these poor creatures.  From
birth they know no father or mother love, they know not the meaning
of the word home, they are taught that they are only suffered to
live until they can demonstrate by their physique and ferocity that
they are fit to live.  Should they prove deformed or defective in
any way they are promptly shot, nor do they see a tear shed for a
single one of the many cruel hardships they pass through from
earliest infancy.

I do not mean that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or
intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless
struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of
which have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional
life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.

By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each
species, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the
birth rate to merely offset the loss by death.          end of pt6