Section 1. A board of examiners of feeble‐minded, criminals and other defectives is hereby created; and forthwith after the passage of this act, and biennially thereafter, the governor shall appoint one neurologist, one surgeon and one practitioner of medicine, each with at least six years' experience in the actual practice of his profession, for the term of two years from and including the first day of December of the year of appointment, as members of said board, who shall be sworn to a faithful discharge of their duties. The members of such board shall be paid ten dollars for each day actually spent in the performance of their duties, and their actual and necessary traveling expenses. A vacancy occurring in said board shall be filled by the governor for the unexpired term.

Section 2. Said board shall examine into the mental and physical condition and the record and family history of the insane, feeble‐minded, epileptic, criminal and other defective initiates confined in the hospitals for the insane, state prison, reformatories, and charitable and penal institutions in the state; and if it appears to said board that procreation by any such person would produce children with an inherited tendency to crime, insanity, feeble‐mindedness, epilepsy, idiocy, or imbecility, said board shall appoint a time and place for hearing thereon within the town where such person is confined, and shall deliver to such person a notice in writing of such hearing, which shall plainly state the time, place and purpose thereof, and shall be delivered to him by some member of said board not less than six nor more than thirty days before the day of said hearing. Said board shall be present at the time and place appointed for such hearing, and shall make such further examination and investigation with respect to such person as shall seem to said board necessary, and shall hear such person in his defense if he appears and requests a hearing.

Section 3. If, in the judgment of all members of said board, after said examination and hearing, procreation by such person would produce children with an inherited tendency to crime, insanity, feeble‐mindedness, epilepsy, idiocy or imbecility, and if there is no probability that the condition of such person will improve to such an extent as to render procreation by such person advisable, or if, in the judgment of said board, the physical or mental condition of such person will be substantially improved thereby, and said board shall unanimously so find, said board shall order such an operation to be performed on such person for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided by said board to be safe and most effective, and shall appoint some member of said board to perform such operation, who shall perform it.

Section 4. Such order shall be in writing, signed by all members of said board, and shall bear the date of its issue, and shall contain the name of the person upon whom the operation is to be performed, the character of the operation and the name of the member of the board who is designated to perform it, and shall be filed by said board in the office of the county clerk of time county where such person resides.

Section 5. Before thus filing said order, said board shall make a copy thereof and deliver the same to the member of said board designated to perform such operation; and said order shall be his full warrant and authority for performing such operation, and no person performing an operation under the provisions of this act, in a proper and skillful manner, shall be held to account therefor in any court. But no operation so ordered shall be performed until fifteen days after the filing of said order in the office of the county clerk.

Section 6. Persons who shall come within the provisions of this law as criminals, and not otherwise, shall be those who have been convicted of the crime of rape, or of such succession of offenses against the criminal law as, in the opinion of said board, shall be deemed to be sufficient evidence of confirmed tendency.

Section 7. Said board shall keep a records of its examinations, hearings and orders, and in each case where an operation is performed under its order said board shall file with the superintendent or other administrative officer of the institution where such person is confined a copy of the record of the examination by said board in such case; and one year after the performance of such operation said superintendent or other administrative officer shall report to said board the condition of such inmate and the effect of such operation upon such inmate.

Section 8. This act shall not apply to children under the age of puberty, nor to women forty‐five years of age and over.

Section 9. Except as authorized by this act, a person who shall perform or assist in performing an operation for the purpose of destroying the power to procreate the human species, or a person who shall knowingly permit such operation to be performed upon him, unless the same shall be a medical necessity, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or be imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Section 10. Whenever a person shall be judged guilty of rape, or shall be a third time convicted of felony, the court may, in addition to such other sentence as may be imposed, direct an operation to be performed upon such person for the purpose of preventing procreation, by a member of the board of examiners of feeble‐minded, criminals and other defectives to be designated by said court, and such member of said board shall perform an operation for such purpose, and the sentence and order of the court shall be his full warrant and authority therefor.

Section 11. The sum of one thousand dollars is hereby annually appropriated to carry out the provisions of this act.

Section 12. This act shall take effect from its passage.