There is an amazing amount of misinformation and no information in regard to human sterilization, even among the intelligent people of this state. The vernally admitted trend of the population toward degeneracy challenges the serious consideration of all intelligent people. This is the people’s problem. They must decide it.
Since 1909, California has been systematically enforcing a eugenic sterilization law.
During this period it has sterilizations almost as many persons as all other states put together. No untoward results or unexpected drawbacks were discovered.
. . .
More clearly than ever, the facts stood out: the multiplication of the feebleminded, so much more rapid than that of the most intelligent and best educated people in the community; the destructive results of parenthood in families handicapped by mental diseases; the effectiveness of sterilization, from all points of view, in meeting the problems presented by these facts. It is this proved effectiveness which has led California institutions to sterilize 12,941 patients up to January 1, 1939.
The operation is both simple and harmless. . . . fatalities are almost unknown. The patients find no change whatever in their health or feelings. The only change is that parenthood has been made impossible.
The California laws apply to persons who are legally committed as insane or feebleminded to state institutions. The medical superintendent may recommend the sterilization of any such patient, setting forth the reasons therefor. If the Director of the State Department of Institutions approves the recommendation, the operation is legally compulsory.
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