THE STERILIZATION BILL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May
I call your attention to the report of the Mental Deficiency Committee of 1929, which sums up definitely against sterilization? This Committee, a joint Committee of the Board of Education and Board of Control, found that there was insufficient evidence to justify the general adoption of sterilization of defectives and were convinced that even if adopted no great alleviation of the burden Of mental deficiency would follow. One important aspect of the case presented in the report, which you do not appear to appre- ciate, should be brought to the notice of every advocate of sterilization.
The real criterion of mental deficiency is the social one. A mentally defective individual is one who by reason of incomplete mental development is incapable :of independent social adaptation and requires external care and control. It follows, therefore, that close supervision or segregation of most defectives is inevitable, and sterilization would not in any way enhance their social efficiency or render them fit to be restored to an independent existence. On the contrary, it would increase their moral danger and prove injurious to the health of the community. The supervision and segrega- tion necessary to provide the protection and special training appropriate to their condition can be made effective in preventing them from reproducing their kind, without the need for such subversive legislation as was proposed.
With regard to the voluntary principle embOdied in the Bill, a case may be argued for conceding to the normal adult the right to sterilization, abOrtion, or even suicide, but the defective is, by reason of his disability, unable to exercise intelligent freewill and the " encouragement to submit to the operation " which you commend would in actuality amount to coercion. One cannot help being very appre- hensive of the ultimate consequences of the dangerous precedent that would thus be established.—I am, Sir, 8w.,
Oak Tree Cottage, -West Horsley, Surrey. F. M. Avis.
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