header by Emerson Taymor, 2005
1. The Colonial Era: 1607-1763
2. The Revolutionary Era: 1763-1789
3. The Early National Period: 1789-1824
4. Jacksonian America: 1824-1848
5. Antebellum America: 1848-1860
6. The Civil War Era: 1861-1877
9. The Twenties
10. Depression and New Deal: 1929-1939
14. The Sixties
Indiana Sterilization Statute (1907)
Passed 1907, 59-22 in the House, 28-16 in the Senate
AN ACT to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles,
and rapists; Providing that superintendents or boards of managers of institutions
where such persons are confined shall have the authority and are empowered
to appoint a committee of experts, consisting of two physicians, to examine
into the mental condition of such inmates.
WHEREAS, heredity plays a most important part in the transmission of crime,
idiocy, and imbecility:
THEREFORE, BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF INDIANA, that on and after the passage of this act it shall be compulsory for each and every institution in the state, entrusted with the care of confirmed criminals, idiots, rapists and imbeciles, to appoint upon its staff, in addition to the regular institutional physician, two (2) skilled surgeons of recognized ability, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the chief physician of the institution, to examine the mental and physical condition of such inmates as are recommended by the institutional physician and board of experts and the board of managers. If in the judgment of this committee of experts procreation is inadvisable, and there is no probability of improvement of the mental and physical condition of the inmate, it shall be lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective. But this operation shall not be performed except in cases that have been pronounced unimproveable. Provided that in no case the consultation fee be more than three dollars to each expert, to be paid out of the funds appropriated for the maintenance of such institution.
These laws were later ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in Buck v Bell (1927), 8-1, with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes notoriously writing that a Virginia sterilization law was both legal and necessary, as otherwise the nation was in danger of "being swamped with incompetence....Three generations of imbeciles are enough."