Eugenic States

Iowa's Eugenic Act Transcript

Sec. 7. Order for sterilization. If in the judgement of a majority of said board procreation by such persons would produce a child or children having an inherited tendency to feeble-mindedness, syphilis, insanity, epilepsy, criminality, or degeneracy, or who would probably become a social menace or ward of the state, and there is no probability that the condition of such person so investigated and examined will improve to such an extent as to avoid such consequences, then it shall be the duty of such board to make an order embodying its conclusions with reference to such person in said respects and specifying such a type of sterilization as may be deemed by said board best suited to the condition of said person and most likely to produce the beneficial results in the respects specified in this section, but nothing contained in this act shall be construed to authorize castration nor removal of sound organs from the body.

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