Sterilization of Criminals, the Feebleminded and the Mentally Ill
In defense of the bill proposed by the government in the Saxon parliament, the following reasons for legislative action have been urged:For eugenic and social reasons, measures for the prevention of the propagation of criminals, the feebleminded and the mentally ill are needed.In addition to prohibitions against marriage, detention in an asylum, etc., sterilization by means of vasectomy and salpingectomy is the principal means of prevention. In contrast to castration, these do not change, as far as is known, the character of those operated on, either bodily or mentally. It does not deprive them of sexual desires or the possibility of normal sexual intercourse.Sterilization is to be considered for the prevention of the spread of hereditary mental diseases, feeblemindedness and criminal tendencies; more particularly, in:1. Patients who are suffering or have suffered from unequivocally demonstrated dementia praecox