Texas
There
were no known eugenic sterilizations in Texas.
Passage of Law(s)
As
Julius Paul has pointed out, while Texas never
had a law authorizing the sterilization of residents, the president of
the State
Medical Association of Texas, F. E. Daniel, as early as in 1893
supported
eugenic practices by claiming that sterilization by castration for
“certain
institutionalized persons” and as “a penalty for sexual crimes” would
lead to
“race improvement” (Paul, p. 648).
Texas
legislators did not act upon this call for sterilizations (Paul, p.
648).
Texas also had “Fitter Family Contests.” Below is a “Fitter Family Examination” form from a contest in Dallas in 1925 (on display at the Eugenics archive site (http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/images/188.html).
Process of the Law
Texas’ laws for consent protected Texans from sexual sterilizations. “Texas Common Law requires patient’s consent for all surgical procedures. The Legislature has made special exception for emergency treatment in state institutions, but specifically expected sexual sterilizations and frontal lobotomies, which left these two operations intact in Texas law,” notes Paul in his commentary on post-WWII practices in Texas (p. 647).
Bibliography
Paul, Julius. 1965. “‘Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough’: State Eugenic Sterilization Laws in American Thought and Practice.” Washington, D.S.: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.