Eugenic States: A Contextual ArchiveMain MenuIntroductionCritical Themes in the History of EugenicsEugenic Practices in California, Iowa, and North CarolinaWhat We Can Say with DataAcknowledgementsGianna May Sanchez52f70e8243b469d8015c7550a8cc718bc4460376Jacqueline D. Wernimont74f0121b4969a68798926bffef58ce29410a6b81Alexandra Minna Stern890e264c2ef7645d038bfeae8ec718e694c9c9ee
Iowa's Eugenic Act Transcript
12025-10-01T19:37:25+00:00John Bell95368f97d82dceffed8038b36e9c51da6c29afe331plain2025-10-01T19:37:25+00:00John Bell95368f97d82dceffed8038b36e9c51da6c29afe3Sec. 7. Order for sterilization. If in the judgement of a majority of said board procreation by such persons would produce a child or children having an inherited tendency to feeble-mindedness, syphilis, insanity, epilepsy, criminality, or degeneracy, or who would probably become a social menace or ward of the state, and there is no probability that the condition of such person so investigated and examined will improve to such an extent as to avoid such consequences, then it shall be the duty of such board to make an order embodying its conclusions with reference to such person in said respects and specifying such a type of sterilization as may be deemed by said board best suited to the condition of said person and most likely to produce the beneficial results in the respects specified in this section, but nothing contained in this act shall be construed to authorize castration nor removal of sound organs from the body.
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12025-10-01T19:37:25+00:00John Bell95368f97d82dceffed8038b36e9c51da6c29afe3Iowa's Eugenic Act1Excerpt from legislation from the 1911 Iowa General Assembly approving the state's first sterilization law.plain2025-10-01T19:37:25+00:00Chapter 66, Section 7, “Order for sterilization,” Laws of the Thirty-Fourth General Assembly of the State of Iowa, 1911.Des Moines1911EnglishIAGeneral Assembly of the State of IowaW.C. Hayward1911legislationFair UseCropped and transcribed by SSJ Lab Member, October 2023.Emory H. EnglishJohn Bell95368f97d82dceffed8038b36e9c51da6c29afe3