Number of Victims
There were no legal sterilizations in this state. While rumors existed of twenty-six young men having been castrated for “curative” purposes around the turn of the twentieth century, there is record of such sterilizations (Paul, p. 585). There is a record of one mentally ill inmate of the Boston State Hospital who was promised release if he consented to sterilization first, and of the sterilization having taken place in 1911 (Paul, p. 586, n. 3)
Precipitating Factors
During the colonial
period, Massachusetts and Connecticut started to segregate the healthy native
population from others by authorizing laws that would quarantine foreign
ships, suppress disreputable medical practitioners or "quacks," and regulate immunizations (Caron, p. 36).
Foreign women in
Massachusetts in the early 20th
century were having on average 50%
more children than native-born women (Caron, p. 45). This large
difference in birth rates was regarded to be a sign that the native
population would be replaced with those of Slavic, Balkan, and
Mediterranean descent. In New England at large it was observed that the
immigrants were having nearly 10 times the
number of children as native residents (Caron, p. 45).
Since
1905,
Massachusetts did have a compulsory vaccination law and those who did
not comply and receive vaccinations were penalized with a five dollar
fine. In Jacobson v. Massachusetts,
the Supreme Court declared that upheld
police power in regard compulsory vaccination (Lombardo, pp. 86, 152).
Vaccinations were deemed
more dangerous than vasectomies, so it was thought that the same
principle,
medical intervention by the state for the benefit of the public good,
could be applied to compulsory sterilization (Lombardo, p. 157).
Massachusetts
was also
fond of Fitter Family contests, which gained prominence in the 1920s
(Rosen p.
113). One of the contests was the delivery of a sermon on
eugenics, with the
reward for the best being $500 (Ordover, p. 33). Fitter Family contests
were efficient ways
to educate the public on the eugenics movement and to make families
acknoqledge their racial and social responsibility (Rosen, p. 113).
The
Catholic Church also
played a role. Lorraine Leeson Campell, president of Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, along with many women voters in Massachusetts
attempted to overturn
the ban on contraceptives in 1940s but were unsuccessful due to
resistance by the Catholic Church (Caron,
p.141). By the end of the second World War, Massachusetts and
Connecticut were the only two
states in the US where doctors could not prescribe contraceptives to
their patients (Caron, p.
117). Moreover, Massachusetts law also prohibited clinics where
patients could receive
birth control and contraceptive surgery, though the neighboring state
of Rhode Island did allow such clinics
(Caron, p. 124). Even though Rhode Island, like Massachusetts, had a
large Catholic population, these clinics survived in the state. Since
it was not available in Massachusetts, many residents went
to Rhode Island to get the contraceptive services they desired (Caron,
p. 145).
Eventually, with the verdict of the Griswold
Supreme Court case, clinics were allowed to open in Massachusetts (Caron, p. 178).
In Robbie Mae Hathaway v.
Worcester City Hospital,
a court case from 1971, a mother asked to receive contraceptive
sterilization from the Worcester City Hospital, as means of permanent
birth control after having eight children (Dowbiggin, Keeping America Sane, pp. 157-158). However, at this point the Massachusetts
hospital had a ban on surgical sterilizations, and denied the woman
surgery. The court found the hospital had violated the equal protection clause of
the 14th Amendment and granted her the surgery (Dowbiggin, The Sterilization Movement, pp.
157-158). Along with Roe v. Wade, the issue of voluntary sterilizations in
America was resolved.
Marriage Laws
At
this time, Western
states had started to institute marriage restriction laws, including
those that would prohibit intermarriage between Asian immigrants and
native-born whites (Caron, p. 53). Eventually these
prohibitions expanded so that the disabled, "imbeciles", and epileptics
were
included. Connecticut was the first state in New England to establish
marriage
restriction laws, and other states soon followed. By 1940,
Massachusetts
had marriage restrictions that applied to "idiots" and "feeble-minded"
persons. People who
had been committed to an institution for mental defectives, the
feeble-minded, or were wards of the state were not allowed to be
married, even if they had been
sterilized in order to be released from the institution (Schuler, pp.
304-305). An insane person committed to a hospital for mentally
defective people or an insane ward of the
state was also not allowed to get married (Schuler, p. 313).
Major Proponents
Eugenicist Harry Laughlin stated that the superintendent of Monson State Hospital, Dr. Everett Flood, was an early advocate and “tester” of eugenic sterilization (cited in Paul, p. 585).
Dr. Storer, the leader of
the anti-abortion campaign, was another major proponent. His reasoning behind
banning abortion was that foreigners, who were “abnormal," were not having
abortions, but the native and wealthy middle-class was (Caron, p. 22). The large
increase in population, and henceforth the increase in subpar individuals, was
wholly due to the large increase in the foreign population.
Though
in general the Catholic
Church in Massachusetts was against sterilization, not all Catholics or
other denominations were against eugenic ideals. Reverend C. Thurston
belonged to the Central Congregation Church. He was a supporter of the
eugenics movement and was
able to convince not only his clergy, but also many Methodists,
Baptists, and Episcopalians, to refuse
to wed couples who did not provide evidence
of both of their physical and mental ability (Rosen, p. 59).
Reverend MacArthur also
contributed to eugenic ideas in Massachusetts by breeding cattle to learn more
about inheritance of traits (Rosen, p. 171). He
was the secretary of the Federation of Churches
in Massachusetts and constantly emphasized how well-suited eugenics was
to
Christian ideology (Rosen, p. 171). Even though preaching was his first
priotiy, he became secretary of the state eugenics committee and later
secretary of the American Eugenic Society committee (Rosen, p. 171).
His role
in the American Eugenic Society was working with clergymen to find ways
to
incorporate eugenics into religion, such as having sermons that related
to
eugenics. He himself did that, and wrote a monthly column relating the
two
(Rosen, p.171).
“Feeder Institutions” and institutions where sterilizations were performed
Massachusetts was among the first of the states to have institutions and hospitals for the sole reason of providing care and treatment to the feeble-minded and other stigmatized groups (Reilly, p. 12). Massachusetts began establishing these institutions in 1848 (Reilly, p. 12).
(Photo origin: Rootsweb.com; available at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/monson/shericmonson6.jpg)
The rumors concerning castrations pertain to the Monson State Hospital for Epileptics in Palmer, Massaschusetts, directed by Dr. Flood.
Other Hospitals and Institutions
While no sterilizations
occurred in any of these hospitals and institutions, they are important to
recognize for the segregation of the "unfit."
Fernald State School was named
as such after the first director, who was nationally recognized as an
authority on feeblemindedness (Dowbiggin, Keeping America Sane, p. 101). He believed that IQ
tests were accurate and that those who were feeble were also promiscuous (Dowbiggin, Keeping America Sane, p 101). He ran the school from 1889 to 1924. At one point there were
approximately 1,400 residents, with 1,100 of them having an IQ under 30 (Reilly,
p. 159). There is suspicion that coercive sterilizations occurred here, but those claims are dubious (Reilly,
p. 159). Fernald believed that sterilization
would actually increase illicit intercourse. He thought that sterilization might cure
feebleness, but it would create immorality and insanity (Largent, p. 89).
There
was also the Reformatory
for women in South Farmingham, where there were supposedly thousands of
cases of young repeat-offenders beings sent multiple times. Using these
repeat
offenders, the officials attemped to make a case for criminality due to
inheritance
(Largent, p.120).
From 1829 up until 1930
there were over 25 new hospitals, state reformatory schools, and asylums built
and opened for the care and treatment of various “deficiencies,” including but
not limited to buildings for the blind, idiots, insane, alcoholics, and
epileptics. However, due to a 1969 mandate, most of the state schools have
since been closed (State Hospitals Historical Overview).
Opposition
The
Roman Catholic Church did not support sterilization, whether it was
voluntary or
compulsory, under any circumstances (Robitscher, p. 49). Since in
Massachusetts
the Church had a large presence, this is probably a large factor as to
why no formal compulsory law
was ever established. Catholics tended to agree with eugenic ideas of
protecting the healthy natives from the disease of feeblemindedness,
but disagreed with the
idea of surgery to keep the two groups separate (Rosen, p. 49). The Catholic Church in general also criticized
eugenic leaders, claiming they rushed into applying eugenics without concern
(Rosen, p. 47).
The
African American population also was generally an opposing group. Some claimed that the
only reason Massachusetts lawmakers wanted Planned Parenthood and other clinics was to
wipe out the black race through abortions (Caron, p. 236).
Caron, Simone M. 2008. Who Chooses?: American Reproductive History since 1830. Gainesville: University of Florida.
Dowbiggin, Ian. 1997. Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Dowbiggin, Ian. 2008. The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Largent, Mark A. 2008. Breeding Contempt. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Lombardo, Paul. 2008. Three Generations No Imbeciles. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ordover, Nancy. 2003. American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Paul, Julius. 1965. "'Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough': State Eugenic Sterilization Laws in American Thought and Practice." Unpublished Manuscript. Washington, D.C.: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Reilly, Philip R. 1991. The Surgical Solution. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Robitscher, Jonas. 1973. Eugenic Sterilization. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Rosen, Christine. 2004. Preaching Eugenics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schuler, Ruth V. 1940. “Some Aspects of Eugenic Marriage Legislation in the United States.” The Social Service Review 14 (2): 301-316.
State Hospitals Historical Overview. Available at <http://www.1856.org/historicalOverview.html>.