MORE "EUGENIC LAWS" 



Four States Consider Sterilization Legislation and Nine Contemplate Restrictions 

 on Marriage — None of Proposed Laws Satisfactory from Eugenic Viewpoint 



Dr. W. C. Rucker 

 Assistant Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health Service, Washington, D. C; Secretary, 

 Committee on Education and Extension, American Genetic Association 



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EGISLATION is still, in the 

 minds of many people, a panacea 

 J for all the biological ills of the 

 nation, and the past winter has 

 seen another crop of proposed "eugenic 

 laws," of a character which the experi- 

 ences of recent years would lead us to 

 expect. Most of the measures which 

 the public hails as eugenic have nothing 

 to do with eugenics, and some of the 

 measures that bear on eugenics bear in 

 the wrong direction. The populariza- 

 tion of the science of eugenics has 

 suffered in the past in two ways which 

 are direct antitheses. On the one hand 

 it has been declared a fad, the dream of 

 the idealist, the impractical propaganda 

 of the mentally unemployed, while on 

 the other hand it has been made the 

 refuge of that species of crank who 

 always welcomes the new and unusual, 

 and a cloak to be thrown about weak 

 legislative measures requiring the suste- 

 nance of popularity. Eugenics is a 

 science. It is a fact, not a fad. It 

 is a means for the continued better- 

 ment of the race stock and the physical 

 and mental uplift of mankind in 

 general. In order to achieve success, 

 a knowledge of its principles must 

 be disseminated and it is important 

 that those interested in the furtherance 

 of eugenics should understand the exact 

 nature of these measures in order that, 

 if they see fit to favor them, they may 

 not do so under the impression that 

 they are furthering the cause of eugenics. 

 With the assistance of the editor of the 

 Journal of Heredity, there has therefore 

 been prepared the following digest of 

 bills advertised as eugenic, which, as 

 far as we know, are now pending in the 

 several vStates of the Union. 



Bills for the sterilization of certain 

 supposedly undesirable classes of citizens 

 have been introduced in the legislatures 

 of four states. These, if rightly framed 

 and properly administered, would have 

 a eugenic value in cutting off defective 

 streams of germ-plasm. They will be 

 considered first. 



The Nebraska bill (House No. 15) 

 provides that the Board of Commis- 

 sioners of State Institutions shall ap- 

 point two physicians to be known as the 

 board of examiners of epileptics, feeble- 

 minded and other defectives. Their 

 compensation shall be $10 a day while 

 they are actually engaged in this work, 

 and their duty shall be to examine into 

 the physical and mental condition and 

 record and family history of the feeble- 

 minded, epileptic and other defective 

 inmates of the several State hospitals 

 for the insane. State prisons, reforma- 

 tories and charitable and penal institu- 

 tions. If it shall be the judgment of 

 this board that procreation by any such 

 inmate "would produce children with 

 an inherited tendency to crime, insanity, 

 feeblemindedness, idiocy or imbecility 

 and there is no probability that the 

 condition of any such person so exam- 

 ined will improve to such an extent as 

 to render procreation by any such 

 person advisable, or if the physical or 

 mental condition of any such person 

 will be substantially improved thereby, 

 then said board shall appoint one of its 

 members to perforin such operation 

 for the prevention of procreation as 

 shall be decided by said board to be 

 most effective." Court procedure is 

 made necessary, however, before the 

 operation is actually carried out. 



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