Eugenics and sterilization

Sterilization procedures have been carried out in various societies as a method to control which portion of the population is allowed to reproduce. In the 19th Century, such procedures were first openly advocated as a kind of "scientific" social planning. "Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the term 'eugenics', meaning 'the science which deals with all influences that improve inborn qualities'. It was adopted by a vociferous section of society, keen to diminish 'cacogenic' germplasm by segregating defectives in institutions and removing their ability to reproduce." (reference for quote:Drake, Mills, Cranston (1999) On the chequered history of vasectomy BJU International 84 (4), 475–481. doi:10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.00206.x)

USA

Vasectomy was considered an ideal means of ending the reproductive capability of undesireable men by a number of physcians and scientist who published their ideas at the turn of the last century and the early decades of the 20th century. In 1899, Albert Ochsner, who would become Professor of Surgery at the University of Illinois, published "Surgical Treatment of Habitual Criminals", which advocated vasectomy for male prisoners.

"Some clinicians of eugenicist attitude carried out operations with no legal authority. F. Hoyt Pilcher, superintendent of the Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth in Kansas, castrated 47 inmates. The superintendent of a leper colony in Cuba stated he would change his plan to sterilize lepers with radiation to the use of vasectomy. In 1907 the state of Indiana introduced a bill authorizing the compulsory sterilization of any confirmed criminal, idiot, rapist or imbecile in a state institution, whose condition was considered unimprovable by a panel of physicians. Eventually 29 states had statutes permitting sterilization of the insane and feeble-minded, of which 12 also covered sterilization of criminals."( (reference for quote:Drake, Mills, Cranston (1999) On the chequered history of vasectomy BJU International 84 (4), 475–481. doi:10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.00206.x)

In 1927, the Supreme Court upheld the sterilization law in Virginia in the case of Buck vs Bell. Ths case involved the proposed sterilization of a female inmate of an institution for the Epileptic and Feeble-minded whose mother and daughter were both retarded. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes supported the measure, saying: 'public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the state for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence.... Three generations of imbeciles are enough'. (reference for quote:Drake, Mills, Cranston (1999) On the chequered history of vasectomy BJU International 84 (4), 475–481. doi:10.1046/j.1464-410x.1999.00206.x)