hereby authorized and directed to
appoint for each of said institutions, respectively, two
skilled surgeons, who, in conjunction with the physician or
surgeon in charge at each of said institutions, shall examine
such persons as are reported to them by the warden,
superintendent, or the physician or surgeon in charge, to be
persons by whom procreation would be inadvisable.

Such board shall examine the physical and mental condition of
such persons, and their record and family history so far as
the same can be ascertained, and if in the judgment of the
majority of said board, procreation by any such person would
produce children with an inherited tendency to crime,
insanity, feeble-mindedness, idiocy, or imbecility, and there
is no probability that the condition of any such person so
examined will improve to such an extent as to render
procreation by such person advisable, or, if the physical and
mental condition of any such person will be substantially
improved thereby, then the said board shall appoint one of
its members to perform the operation of vasectomy or
ooephorectomy, as the case may be, upon such person. Such
operation shall be performed in a safe and humane manner, and
the board making such examination, and the surgeon performing
such operation, shall receive from the State such
compensation, for services rendered, as the warden of the
State prison or the superintendent of either of such
hospitals shall deem reasonable.

_Section 2._ Except as authorized by this Act, every person
who shall perform, encourage, assist in, or otherwise promote
the performance of either of the operations described in
Section 1 of this Act, for the purpose of destroying the
power to procreate the human species; or any person who shall
knowingly permit either of such operations to be performed
upon such person--unless the same be a medical
necessity--shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars,
or imprisoned in the State prison not more than five years,
or both.

These States are to be commended in the highest possible terms for
their enlightened action in this direction. Who can say how many
families of Jukes and Zeros have already been inhibited by this simple
and humane means? "Could such a law be enforced in the whole United
States, less than four generations would eliminate ni