SELECTIVE STERILIZATION FOR RACE CULTURE 203 



What about the opinions of the social scientists in this matter? In 1930 

 all the members of American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded 

 (317) were consulted by questionnaire as to whether they approved or dis- 

 approved of sterilization of mental defectives. 243 replies to the question 

 were received, and 227 of this number approved the principle of sterilization. 

 Ninty-four per cent of the members of this scientifically minded organiza- 

 tion thus expressed their evident approval. The very interesting fact was 

 also learned through this questionnaire that not one of the members living 

 in states that now have sterilization laws wished their present law abandoned. 

 In a number of confidential discussions of this question which I have had 

 with superintendents of state institutions for the feeble minded I have en- 

 countered none who would not sanction the principle of selective sterili- 

 zation, though many believe that the electorate is in some states not suffici- 

 ently advanced in social science to fully comprehend the far reaching value 

 of permissive sterilization of defectives. 



The actual fact is that in the State of California, where they have the 

 most complete and reliable data on which to base opinions in the matter, we 

 find the most enthusiastic supporters of this measure. Even those persons 

 who have been sterilized are among the group who are enthusiastically 

 friendly to the measure. Their relatives and friends are, in general, equally 

 well satisfied. 



In cases where sterilized feeble minded persons have married, since there 

 are no children, both husband and wife can work out so that, even if neither 

 one is very efficient economically, the joint earnings of the two support them 

 comfortably. Probably neither one could have carried successfully the 

 responsibility of a family and children. 



From another state, Delaware, where a considerable number of steriliza- 

 tions have been performed, comes this comment: "The sterilization law, 

 passed at the instance of this Board in 1923 (State Board of Charities) is 

 producing remarkable results . . . This Board is still of the opinion that 

 the sterilization law is one of the most important laws on our statute books." 



Many of my own cases seen in mental hygiene clinics conducted through- 

 out New York and New Jersey show most convincingly the need for the use 

 of sterilization of mental defectives. A family of six children, two of whom 

 reached the fourth grade, three only the third, and the patient who is a 

 thirteen-year-old moron showing no school progress — all are apparently 

 defectives. The father is a drunkard and uneducated, the mother definitely 

 defective mentally. She eloped with a negro after adding this defective 

 brood to the nation's population — who in their turn (if not sterilized) will 

 breed more defectives. Would it not have been far better if she had been 

 sterilized before propagating these six defectives — and what of the future? 



