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1. 1 media/NP11_Selective Sterilization_thumb.jpg 2024-06-07T20:28:30+00:00 Gianna May Sanchez b6deef7be4c4843975b8218d24ae92e68f945198 Selective Sterilization 2 A newspaper advertisement by the North Carolina Eugenics Board with information promoting and explaining eugenic sterilization. Wednesday, May 18, 1949 SELECTIVE STERILIZATION WHY IS IT NEEDED? The responsibility of parenthood requires a sound mind and a healthy body. Even though some children born to mental defectives may possess normal minds, they are seldom given the training needed to produce well balanced adults who will be an asset to the community. Morons are now doubling their number with each generation; over half the hospital beds in this country are occupied by mentally ill or mentally defective patients, and overcrowded institutions cannot begin to accommodate their increasing numbers. (In Connecticut 1500 mental patients produced 498 defective children while they were awaiting admission to state institutions.) In 1930 the White House Conference on Child Health pointed out: “There should be no child in America that does not have the complete birthright of a sound mind in a sound body, and that has not been born under proper conditions.” Selective sterilization can help to attain this goal. WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED? • Whenever lifelong protection from parenthood is needed; • Whenever mothers need permanent protection from a pregnancy which would be fatal; • When children must be shielded from being born to a heritage of insanity or feeblemindedness; • When defenseless children must be saved the suffering and unhappiness of being brought up by an insane or feebleminded parent. WHAT EFFECT DOES IT HAVE? The person sterilized, whether man or woman, can detect no effect except that children are not born. The sexual characteristics remain unchanged. Sterilization permits many persons with mental deficiency to live outside of institutions, to enjoy a measure of independence, and to marry without the psychological and economic overload of parenthood and child care. Studies in California, New Hampshire and elsewhere have shown that sterilization does not increase sexual delinquency. The effect on the community is far reaching: Sterilization reduces the number who must live in our overcrowded, understaffed institutions; it decreases the number of children who must be taken from insane or feebleminded parents to be raised in foster homes at public expense; it protects the next generation from a needless and tragic heritage. HOW IS IT PERFORMED? Sterilization in both men and women is performed by tubectomy — the closing of the tiny tubes through which the life-producing cells must pass in order to unite. Nothing is removed from the body. The male operation — vasectomy — is extremely simple and can be performed under local anesthetic in a doctor’s office in ten minutes or less. Sterilization in women — salpingectomy — requires an abdominal incision not more than two inches long. The ovaries are not disturbed and menstruation continues normally. The risk in either operation is slight, there is no mutilation and the individual’s emotional life is in no way altered. There is no change in physical appearance nor in voice tone. WHERE IS IT LEGAL? Sterilization is legal in all states. Twenty-seven progressive states and Puerto Rico provide for the sterilization at state expense of persons suffering from insanity or feeblemindedness which may be inherited by their children. These states are: Arizona California Delaware Georgia Idaho Iowa Kansas Michigan Maine Minnesota Mississippi Montana Nebraska New Hampshire North Carolina North Dakota Oklahoma Oregon South Carolina South Dakota Utah Vermon Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Other countries which provide for the sterilization of the mentally defective are: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. WHO MAKES THE DECISION? Each individual need for this operation at state expense is carefully reviewed by a state board of medical and sociological experts and the consent of the patient or the patient’s family is sought. If not satisfied with the board’s decision, the patient may carry the matter to the civil courts. Such legal action is seldom taken, however, as the protection is almost always welcomed by those immediately concerned. It has been argued that legal sterilization might be abused and become a political instrument. The same objection can be applied to almost every legal regulation. Even prison parole, tax levies and school boards can be abused, but it is not suggested that these beneficial agencies be abolished because they can be occasionally misused. 50,193 sterilizations have been reported by state institutions in the 27 states without indication of abuse, 2,152 in North Carolina. [A graphic of a small, five-point black star is below the above text to establish a new section] KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE STERILIZATION LAW OF NORTH CAROLINA Make sure that this law protects those who need protection and helps to spare children from a heritage of needless tragedy. HOW YOU CAN HELP Know and understand the sterilization laws of your state. Bring these laws to the attention of families who can be benefited by them. Encourage the discussion of Selective Sterilization by the civic and socially minded groups of which you are a member. Suggest that your public health, medical, educational and religious leaders investigate this important and far reaching better mental health measure. Write for additional copies of this and other pamphlets to distribute to your friends and community leads. [A graphic of a small, five-point black star is below the above text to establish a new section] For further information, address: HUMAN BETTERMENT LEAGUE OF NORTH CAROLINA Incorporated P. O. Box 3036 Winston-Salem, N. C. media/NP11_Selective Sterilization.jpg plain 2024-06-07T20:34:35+00:00 Human Betterment League of North Carolina, “Selective Sterilization,” Daily Tar Heel, 18 May 1949. Gianna May Sanchez b6deef7be4c4843975b8218d24ae92e68f945198