Massachusetts
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)
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).
“Feeder Institutions” and
institutions where
sterilizations were performed
(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.
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 Unpublished Manuscript.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.