779 



The Journal of Heredity 



tion, apparently assuming that if they 

 are steriHzed the State has done its 

 full duty. We consider this idea to be 

 entirely erroneous. Defectives should 

 not be released from State custody 

 unless their relati\'es and friends are 

 certain to care for them properly; and 

 in such, cases, steriHzation will fre- 

 quently — although doubtless not al\va\'s 

 — be unnecessary. We think this bill 

 should be defeated. Washington's ex- 

 isting sterilization law is practically not 

 in effect,^ and if its legislators cannot 

 im]jrove on this attempt at amendment, 

 the State had better get along without 

 a sterilization law and keep its defec- 

 tive wards properly and i)ermanenth- 

 isolated. 



MISSOURI LEGISLATION 



Missouri makes its first attempt to 

 enter the ranks of legislative eugenists, 

 in House Bill No. 385, now pending, 

 which, after declaring that "habitual 

 criminals, moral degenerates and sexual 

 ]3er verts are menaces to ]iublic health, 

 peace and safety," and defining those 

 classes, requires all superintendents of 

 State hospitals for insane and feeble- 

 minded and the superintendent of the 

 State penitentiary to report quarterly 

 to the State Board of Health the names, 

 record, character and condition of any 

 such ]3ersons in their care. The board 

 of health shall investigate each case, 

 and if the subject is found to be as 

 described, he shall be sterilized. He or 

 his friends or relatives may appeal to a 

 circuit court; if the finding of the board 

 of health is sustained, sterilization shall 

 proceed. 



This measure declares itself to be a 

 jjolice regulation rather than an attemjit 

 to im])rove the average value of heredity 

 in the State. From a eugenic stand- 

 jioint, it appears to the writers to be of 

 little value, and its defeat is desirable. 

 Eugenic and ]jolice or punitive measures 

 should not be confused — if they are 

 linked together the ])ublic will get an 

 inaccurate idea of what eugenics means ; 

 nor is it desirable that eugenic steriliza- 

 tion l)e considered a form of jmnishment. 

 Furthermore, the bill takes no account 



• Eugenics Record Office Bulletin 1013. p. 80. 

 2 Ibid., p. 87. 



of whether the inmate of a hospital 

 for the insane or feebleminded, or the 

 State penitentiary, is going to remain 

 there for life. If he is, sterilization is 

 foolish — the sexes should be segregated. 

 If he is not, more care should be made 

 necessary in arranging for his future; 

 he should not be dismissed in this 

 offhand manner as a person of no further 

 concern to the State. The framers of 

 this measure give no evidence of under- 

 standing the purpose of sterilization 

 from a eugenic point of view: they 

 appear to look on it as a sort of patent 

 medicine, a bottle of which will wholly 

 cure one of these degenerates whom 

 they have described as menaces to 

 public health, jjeacc and safety. The 

 eugenist cannot share that \'iew. 



iowa's "eugenic law" 



Iowa has taken the subject of "eugenic 

 laws" very seriously, but without prac- 

 tical results to date. In 1911 it adopted 

 a sweeping statute for sterilization, 

 which was never actually put in effect, - 

 in 1913 it repealed this and adoj^tcd a 

 substitute law which is still theoretically 

 in force but under which, so far as is 

 known to us, no operation has ever 

 been jjerformed. It is optional as 

 regards most classes of degenerates, 

 compulsory in case of persons twice 

 convicted of an ordinary felony or 

 sexual ofTcnse, and compulsory after 

 one conviction for "white slavery." 

 The latter provision ob\aously lends 

 itself well to the jjurposes of black- 

 mailers who are already making such 

 ])rofitablc use of the Mann White Slave 

 Act. The Iowa statute has never com- 

 mended itself to many peoj^le, and House 

 Bill No. 365, now j^ending, proj^oses to 

 repeal it, and sul)stitute a new law 

 omitting criminals as such from the 

 act and making it a])i)ly only to insane, 

 idiots, imbeciles and feebleminded, and 

 the syphilitic, who are confined in 

 State institutions. Sterilization is to be 

 ])erformed whenever the sui)erintendent * 

 and a majority of his medical staff 

 agree that it is for the best interests 

 of any ]xitient and society; vasectomy 

 for men and salpingectomy for woinen 



Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y., February, l'>14. 



