Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10A - DNA Patent Database ...

THE SCOPE OF THE COMMITTEE’S WORK. 9
social problems. Legal aspect of sterilization in states practicing it
without the express authorization of the law. Do existing laws permit
any other surgical operation than sterilization? If so, legal bearing?
Do existing laws authorize sterilization as a punitive, a reformatory,
a therapeutic, or a eugenic measure? Sterilization and inheritance of
property. Framing a model law permitting the sterilization of persons
known to have defective germ-plasms, establishing criterion therefor,
and providing for effective execution. Digest of litigation bearing
upon or growing out of the operation. Examination of those laws on
commitment to state institutions.
16. History: Account of the origin, development and relative num-
bers of the socially unfit within the great nations of history. Attitude
of society toward this class. War and defectives. Elimination of the
best blood in relation to national decline. Genius and national greatness.
17. Public Affairs: Sterilization in relation to the general welfare.
The conservation policy and sterilization. Political expediency of the
proposed remedy. Weighing and balancing of the facts and arguments
presented by the consideration of the several aspects of the problems
with the view to practical application.
18. International Co-operation: A review of the studies looking
toward the possible application of the sterilization of defectives in
foreign countries, together with records of any such operations from
eugenical motives; foreign laws, customs and attitudes in reference to
eugenical sterilization. The extent and nature of the problem of the
socially inadequate in foreign countries.
To complete this series of studies is a huge task, and the com-
mittee will be satisfied if it can present under each of the given headings
a few of the many pertinent facts for consideration by the public.
From the beginning of these studies the committee has, at fre-
quent intervals, had the advantage of consultation with Dr. Charles B.
Davenport, the resident director of the Eugenics Record Office, and to
him for his many valuable suggestions the committee is greatly indebted.
December 1, 1913.
HARRY H. LAUGHLIN, Secretary,
Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.