ics; they show that the public, or part of it, feels the
necessity of action; they equally show that the principles which should
guide restrictive eugenics are not properly understood by most of those
who have interested themselves in the legislative side of the program.

Twelve states now have laws on their statute books (but usually not in
force) providing for the sterilization of certain classes of
individuals. Similar laws have been passed in a number of other states,
but were vetoed by the governors; while in many others bills have been
introduced but not passed. We shall review only the bills which are
actually on the statute books in 1916, and shall not attempt to detail
all the provisions of them, but shall consider only the means by which
they propose to attain a eugenic end.

The state of Indiana allows the sterilization of all inmates of state
institutions, deemed by a commission of three surgeons to be
unimprovable physically or mentally, and unfit for procreation. The
object is purely eugenic. After a few hundred operations had been
performed in Jeffersonville reformatory, the law aroused the hostility
of Governor Thomas R. Marshall, who succeeded in preventing its
enforcement; since 1913 we believe it has not been in effect. It is
defectively drawn in some ways, particularly because it includes those
who will be kept in custody for life, and who are therefore not proper
objects of sterilization.

The Washington law applies to habitual criminals and sex offenders; it
is a punitive measure which may be ordered by the court passing sentence
on the offender, but has never been put in force. Sterilization is not a
suitable method of punishment, and its value as a eugenic instrument is
jeopardized by the interjection of the punitive motive.

California applied her law to all inmates (not voluntary) of state
hospitals for the insane and the state home for the feeble-minded, and
all recidivists in the state prisons. The motive is partly eugenic,
partly therapeutic, partly punitive. It is reported[88] that 635
operations have been performed under this law, which is administered by
the state commission for the insane, the resident physician of any state
prison, and the medical superintendent of any state institution for
"fools and idiots." For several years California had the distinction of
being the only state where sterilization was actually being performed in
accordance with the law. The California measure app