PRESERVING THE RACE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5428, 24 May 1929, Page 3

PRESERVING THE RACE.

DEALING WITH THE UNFIT. THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. Sterilisation of the feeble-minded, of the insane, and in certain cases of criminals is firmly entrenched in United States legislation. Indiana led the way, and soon lowa, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and California followed Indiana’s example, until a wave of sterilisation legislation swept 23 States into line. Opponents of such measures have taken individual cases and carried them to the Supreme Court of the United States seeking abrogation of the laws, but the Court’s answer has been that the constitutional rights of the individual are not violated. In May, 1927, when the Supreme Court gave a decision on Virginia’s law, holding it valid, Justice Holmes said : “It was better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind." He added that the principle sustaining compulsory vaccination was broad enough to cover the proposition of sterilisation. Within a few years California had treated 635 insane persons. As a rule application of the law is restricted to mentally unfit held in insane hospitals for whom physicians see no hope of recovery. When the law was under consideration in New York State the welfare commissioner appointed to report on the proposed legislation said that the State would save millions of dollars, and if the law were passed it would prevent untold suffering to thousands of people. Legislation in the States varies. Justice Holmes particularly praised the safeguards contained in the Virginia measure. In New York a general practitioner and a neurologist are required to certify as to the propriety of sterilisation, and a commission studies each case recommended by the two medical authorities. Doctors state that the operation of vasectomy is less serious than the extraction of a tooth. They describe it as a minor operation performed without an anaesthetic and without the need of the patient attending hospital. ' To the charge that the operation tends to immorality they reply that such danger is negligible compared with the benefits society derives from the sterilisation of the unfit. Some declare that the human race must perish unless means are provided for discouraging the rapid multiplication of the feeble-minded and of other persons dangerous to the community’s welfare. It is estimated that America has 120,000 persons who are feeble-minded and 145,000 insane. The increase is 4 per cent, annually. No State has yet repealed legislation designed to prevent the bearing of children who too often would inherit all the weaknesses of their parents. To the argument that eugenic legislation may set a bar to the propagation of genius the medical profession replies that the American laws are framed solely against the reproduction of socially inadequate children.