Idaho

Number of victims

In total, there were 38 victims in Idaho.  Of the 38, 8 were male and 30 were female. About 32% were deemed mentally ill and about 66% “mentally deficient,” with 1 of the 38 victims classified as “other.”

 

Period during which sterilizations occurred

The first sterilizations occurred in 1932 and continued in 1934. The law was dormant from 1935 until 1952, and then sterilizations continued until 1963 (Paul, pp. 334, 337). The rate of sterilization per year was below 1 per 100,000 per year during any period during which sterilizations occurred.

  

Passage of law(s)

In 1918, Idaho passed its first sterilization law, which applied only to institutionalized persons: “to prevent the procreation of the feeble-minded, insane, epileptic, moral degenerates, sexual perverts, who may be inmates of institutions maintained by public expense, by authorizing and providing for the sterilization of persons with inferior hereditary potentialities” (Laughlin, p. 48; Paul, p. 330). The act was vetoed by Governor D.R. Davis in 1919, who doubted its scientific merit (Paul, p. 330). 

 

In 1925, another act was passed that did not limit sterilization to those in institution, and its was compulsory (Paul, pp. 330-1; Landman, p. 84).  The 1925 law also created a State Eugenics Board, but the Board was abolished in 1955 and instead created a Eugenics Section as part of the Division of Mental Health of the State Board of Health (Paul, p. 331).

 

 In 1929, Idaho amended the law to include sterilization operations done either by vasectomy or salpingectomy (Landman, p. 85).

 

Groups identified in the law

The 1925 law was enacted to sterilize people such as “all feeble-minded, insane, epileptics, habitual criminals, moral degenerates, and sexual perverts, who are a menace to society” (Landman, p. 84).

 

Process of the law

All of the sterilization laws required consent. When consent to the sterilizations by the people themselves or by their legal guardians, kin, or friends was unattainable, the state could pursue the operation in the following way: the state eugenics board could appeal to the district court, which would try the issue and affirm or disaffirm the boards order. An appeal to the state supreme court was possible (Landman, p. 85; Paul, p. 331)

 

In general, Idaho sterilizations were few and far between for many reasons. First of all, consent was very difficult to get.  Second, the state had a difficult time proving that the mentally incompetent person’s condition was heritable (which was required for sterilizations.)  Third, sterilization requests could only come from State Institutions, not from local doctors.  And finally, it was virtually impossible to prove that sterilizations were the best means for improving the mental state of those who were considered deficient (Paul, pp. 331-2).

 

Groups targeted and victimized

Most of the candidates for sterilizations were those that were living in institutions for the mentally retarded (Paul, p. 333.)

 

“Feeder institutions” and institutions where sterilizations were performed

Although one cannot be entirely sure, it is likely that sterilizations took place on residents of the Idaho Insane Asylum, the Idaho State Sanitarium and Northern Idaho State Sanitarium, which were all institutions mentioned in Idaho’s first bill (Laughlin, p. 48.) 

 

Bibliography

Landman, J. H. 1932. Human Sterilization: The History of the Sexual Sterilization Movement. New York: MacMillan.

 

Laughlin, Harry H. 1922. Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. Chicago: Municipal Court of Chicago.

 

Painter, George. 2001. “The Sensibilities of Our Forefathers: The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States: Delaware.” Available at http://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/idaho.htm.

 

Paul, Julius. 1965. "'Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough': State Eugenic Sterilization Laws in American Thought and Practice." Washington, D.C.: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.