Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell

APPENDIX B. Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924

2 8 8 An ACT to provide for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in certain cases. (Virginia Acts of Assembly, Chapter 394, 1924) Approved March 24, 1924 Whereas, both the health of the individual patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives under careful safeguard and by competent and conscientious authority, and Whereas, such sterilization may be effected in males by the operation of vasectomy and in females by the operation of salpingectomy, both of which said operations may be performed without serious pain or substantial danger to the life of the patient, and Whereas, the Commonwealth has in custodial care and is supporting in various State institutions many defective persons who if now discharged or paroled would likely become by the propagation of their kind a menace to society but who if incapable of procreating might properly and safely be discharged or paroled and become self-supporting with benefit both to themselves and to society, and Whereas human experience has demonstrated that heredity plays an important part in the transmission of insanity, idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy and crime, now, therefore 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That whenever the superintendent of the Western State Hospital, or of the Eastern State Hospital, or of the Southwestern State Hospital, or of the Central State Hospital, or of a p p e n d i x b Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924 Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924 | 2 8 9 the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded, shall be of opinion that it is for the best interests of the patients and of society that any inmate of the institution under his care should be sexually sterilized, such superintendent is hereby authorized to perform, or cause to be performed by some capable physician or surgeon, the operation of sterilization on any such patient confined in such institution afflicted with hereditary forms of insanity that are recurrent, idiocy, imbecility, feeble-mindedness or epilepsy; provided that such superintendent shall have first complied with the requirements of this act. 2. Such superintendent shall first present to the special board of directors of his hospital or colony a petition stating the facts of the case and the grounds of his opinion, verified by his affidavit to the best of his knowledge and belief, and praying that an order may be entered by said board requiring him to perform or to have performed by some competent physician to be designated by him in his said petition or by said board in its order, upon the inmate of his institution named in such petition, the operation of vasectomy if upon a male and of salpingectomy if upon a female. A copy of said petition must be served upon the inmate together with a notice in writing designating the time and place in the said institution, not less than thirty days before the presentation of such petition to said special board of directors when and where said board may hear and act upon such petition. A copy of the said petition and notice shall also be so served upon the legal guardian or committee of the said inmate if such guardian or committee be known to the said superintendent, and if there be no such guardian or committee or none such be known to the said superintendent, then the said superintendent shall apply to the circuit court of the county or city in which his said institution is situated, or to the judge thereof in vacation, who by a proper order entered in the common law order book of the said court shall appoint some suitable person to act as guardian of the said inmate during and for the purposes of proceedings under this act, to defend the rights and interests of the said inmate, and the guardian so appointed shall be paid by the said institution a fee of not exceeding twenty-five dollars as may be determined by the judge of the said court for his services under said appointment and such guardian shall be served likewise with a copy of the aforesaid petition and notice. Such guardian may be removed or discharged at any time by the said court or the judge thereof in vacation and a new guardian appointed and substituted in his place. 2 9 0 | Appendix B If...