Abstract
ON September 27, under the auspices of the International Federation of Eugenics Organisations, a most instructive address on sterilisation as practised in Switzerland was delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons by Dr. Hans Maier, director of the Psychiatric clinic attached to the University of Zurich. It appears that sterilisation, which Dr. Maier carefully distinguishes from castration, has been practised in Zurich for fifty years. In Switzerland, each canton makes its own laws, and what Dr. Maier had to say applies primarily to the canton of Zurich. The enlightened laws of this canton forbid the marriage of the insane and mentally deficient and ordain that if such marriages are contracted in defiance of the law, they shall be dissolved. Sterilisation (that is, ligature of the genital ducts) is legal in Zurich if it is performed on medical grounds; but the judges have ruled that if the condition of the affected person is such that it is certain that he or she will produce defective offspring, then that is a sufficient medical ground for sterilisation. The insane, which in practice means parsons afflicted with recurring attacks of insanity, and the obvious mental defectives, are confined in asylums; but this involves a very heavy expense to the canton, and the effort is made by nursing and rest to restore them to a better state of health and then to give them their freedom. If they are sterilised before they go out, all fear of undesirable progeny is eliminated. Sterilisation is also performed where a woman in poor circumstances, who has had a large family and is unable without grave risk to bear any more, desires it, but the written consent of the patient is required. A curious point arises in connexion with what are called borderline cases of mental defect, that is, high grade mental defectives. If, Dr. Maier states, the mental defect is accompanied by moral defect, then sterilisation is insisted on, for experience has shown that such moral defect is very prone to be inherited.
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Human Sterilisation in Switzerland. Nature 132, 539–540 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132539d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132539d0