The Sterilization Report The report of the Departmental Committee in
the Sterilization of mental defectives was not, after all, published in time for comment here, but obviously well- informed forecasts make it clear that the decision of the Committee will be against anything like compulsory sterilization at present. The truth is that the data available only suggest, and by no means establish, the conclusion that the offspring of mental defectives are themselves defective. Often it is so ; often it is not so. There is a ruthlessness about the compulsory sterili- zation laws now in force in Germany that public opinion in this country would rightly reprobate. As to voluntary sterilization, the individual it is proposed to treat will, as a mental defective, be incapable of giving or with- holding an intelligent assent, and the operation will thus have to depend on the decision of close relatives, subject to confirmation by some judicial authority. It may well be doubted whether the time is ripe for fresh legislation. The strongest case is that for the com- pulsory sterilization of certain types of sexual pervert, who are fortunately few. To apply compulsion to women, in whose case sterilization involves a major operation, would be intolerable in any ordinary case.
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