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

62 EUGENICS RECORD OFFICE, BULLETIN NO. 10 A.
(c) The consent of the inmate (or his guardians) to the necessary
operation can often be secured, thus relieving the State
from imposing upon an individual, even though he be defec-
tive or insane, who may, because of such operation, bear
some resentment against society. When possible such con-
sent should be secured, but if such consent cannot be
secured then the operation must proceed, for the protection
of society must outweigh the desires or privileges of an
anti-social individual.
(d) There is evidence to show that sex immorality is not encour-
aged or increased as a result of the sterilization of those
manifestly unfit for parenthood. Our investigations indicate
that such persons seldom are deterred from immoral prac-
tices by any consideration which sterilization would remove,
nor does the sterilization of degenerates appear further to
break down the modicum of self-respect and control that
normally belong to such individuals.
6. It is felt that the sterilization law proposed by the committee
will stand the test of constitutionality by the courts. The purely
punitive sterilization law of the State of Washington was recently held
by the Supreme Court of that state to be neither “cruel nor unusual.”
A purely eugenical law, expertly drawn and operating humanely and
applicable only to individuals who by due process of law and by scien-
tific investigation are demonstrated to be social menaces of the gravest
character, would probably be found constitutional in any of the several
States.
7. The Federal Government should exercise the same care in
preventing the landing of inferior human breeding stock that the State
governments should take in eliminating the inferior varieties from the
stock already settled here. It should also apply eugenic principles in
the administration of its several institutions for criminals and insane.
8. That the segregation and sterilization feature of the proposed
program be further supported by legislation and by education applic-
able to persons with physical disabilities (such as hereditary blindness,
deafness, deformity, constitutional weakness, and predisposition to
specific diseases), but still possessed of normal mind and subject to
social influence and amenable to law. If the defect be an extreme sort,
such persons should be deterred from parenthood by eugenical educa-
tion during their youth. Such education should be supported by laws
and customs limiting or prohibiting their marriage. With some in-