Many progressives embraced eugenics—a pseudo-science that advocated selective breeding to improve the quality of human beings—as a way to combat social ills that they thought derived from hereditary factors. The popularity of eugenics among progressives at the turn of the twentieth century led to the passage of measures like Indiana’s Compulsory Sterilization Law of 1907, which promoted forced sterilization to prevent people with mental and physical defects or other “undesirable” traits from procreating.
Whereas, Heredity plays a most important part in the transmission of crime, idiocy, and imbecility;
Penal Institutions—Surgical Operations.
Therefore, Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Indiana, That on and after the passage of this act it shall be compulsory for each and every institution in the state, entrusted with the care of confirmed criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles, to appoint upon its staff, in addition to the regular institutional physician, two skilled surgeons of recognized ability, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the chief physician of the institution, to examine the mental and physical condition of such inmates as are recommended by the institutional physician and board of managers. If, in the judgment of this committee of experts and the board of managers, procreation is inadvisable and there is no probability of improvement of the mental condition of the inmate, it shall be lawful for the surgeons to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be decided safest and most effective. But this operation shall not be performed except in cases that have been pronounced unimprovable: Provided, That in no case shall the consultation fee be more than three dollars to each expert, to be paid out of the funds appropriated for the maintenance of such institution.
Source: Acts 1907, Laws of the State of Indiana, Passed at the Sixty-fifth Regular Session of the General Assembly (Indianapolis: William B. Burford, 1907), 377–78.