Eugenic States: A Contextual Archive Main Menu Introduction Critical Themes in the History of Eugenics Eugenic Practices in California, Iowa, and North Carolina What We Can Say with Data Acknowledgements

Justifying Eugenic Sterilization

3 North Carolina
Justification for eugenic sterilization by medical institutions varied, but many medical records emphasized how a patient was incompetent and the potential “dangers” of their children as drains on state welfare and resources. Cases at the University of Iowa Psychopathic Hospital were no different. This facility was one of the institutions in Iowa that promoted and performed eugenic sterilizations, often praising the “recovery” of patients after sterilization, as one account attested in 1934. This document, a thesis by University of Iowa psychology student Florence Glassman, examined the results of eugenic sterilization on twenty-four women at the university hospital. Through her report, we can understand the perception physicians and medical professionals maintained when viewing patients categorized as “feeble-minded.” While some of the justification for sterilization may seem extreme by today’s standards, these metrics were ardently used under the eugenic belief that preventing specific people from reproducing would improve society. Glassman’s analysis often emphasized the “benefit” of sterilizations, as she did with one twenty-eight-year-old woman included in her study.

An Iowa medical institution sterilized G.B. on April 27, 1932. The profile Glassman provided focused on “evidence” supporting the procedure, criticizing G.B.’s supposed intelligence and her abilities as a wife and mother. G.B. lived in a county home with her husband, who was blind. Two of her children were in an orphanage, and another had already died. This account depicts, albeit unintentionally, a difficult, and isolated life:
She had few friends. She was unable to mix well and was quarrelsome. She fought with the inmates at the home and was unable to understand what they were talking about. She had a vivid imagination and told many lies.[1]
Physicians at the Psychopathic Hospital used these supposed behavioral issues, promiscuity with extramarital relationships, and familial shortcomings as justification for her sterilization. However, G.B.’s life seemed unchanged even after the procedure. As Glassman noted, no changes had occurred mentally or physically, and her behavior was much the same as before. In spite of this, Glassman surmised that G.B.’s sterilization was a success because it restricted the reproductive autonomy of a “feebleminded” woman because “now at least she is no worse and has not conceived.”[2]

Glassman concluded her analysis of G.B. here. She does not consider how G.B. herself viewed her diagnosis as “feebleminded” or her sterilization. Reports such as this that delved into extreme detail about a patient’s life, passed judgement based on their behavior and environmental conditions, and determined their worth as a person were commonplace. Glassman’s analysis often emphasized the family history of a patient as a signifier of inferior heredity, reporting any sign of mental deficiency, poverty, or criminality as evidence in support of sterilization. We do not hear G.B.’s voice in this account and have limited information about how her life proceeded after sterilization. In reviewing documents like Glassman’s thesis, we must be cautious of this omission and consider how the views of the author influence the historical narrative. G.B.’s silence and Glassman’s dismissal of her life are indicative of this erasure.
[1] Florence S. Glassman, “A Study of Eugenic Sterilization in a Group of Twenty-Four Women” (master’s thesis, State University of Iowa, 1934), 26.
[2] Glassman, “Study of Eugenic Sterilization,” 26.

This page has paths:

  1. Sexuality, Reproduction, and the Body Gianna May Sanchez
  2. Iowa Jacqueline D. Wernimont

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