Biennial report of the Eugenics Board of North Carolina

              ijNC-C" HE4LTM SCIENCES lIBBiRY
H00006283
Cbe Hitrarp
of t|)e
D<Dt$ton of \0ta\tb affairs
(UnitiecjSitp of H^ottl) Carolina
i 1
Form No.
Biennial Report
OF
The Eugenics Board
of North CaroHna
JULY 1, 1964
TO
JUNE 30, 1966
(
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Membership, Eugenics Board of North Carolina -— - 4
Letter of Transmittal _. 5
Introduction _ 7
Developments during Biennium 8
Program Statistics _ , 8
Financial Report of Eugenics Board 11
Statistical Report on Eugenical Sterilization (Tables 1-10) 13
Table 1. Operations Performed, by Type of Operation and
Origin of Petition, July 1964-June 1966 14
Table 2. Cases Handled by Fiscal Year, July 1964-June 1966 14
Table 3. Operations Performed, by Length of Time between
Authorization and Operation, July 1964-June 1966 15
Table 4. State Institutional Operations, by Institution, Type
of Operation, and Fiscal Year, July 1964-June 1966 15
Table 5. State Institutional Operations Authorized and Per-formed,
by County of Residence, July 1964-June 1966 16
Table 6. Non-Institutional Operations Authorized and Performed,
by County of Residence, July 1964-June 1966 18
Table 7. Operations Performed, by Type of Operation and Race,
July 1 964-June 1 966 20
Table 8. Type of Operation Performed, by Age and Sex of Person,
July 1964-June 1966 20
Table 9. Operations Performed, by Type of Diagnosis, Source of
Petition, and Marital Status, July 1964-June 1966 21
Table 10. Individuals Having Children Prior to Sterilization, by
Marital Status and Number of Children, July 1964-June 1966 22
Historical Data on Eugenical Sterilization in North Carolina (Table 11-18) _ _-..23
Table 11. Cases Handled by Biennial Periods, July 1933-June 1966 25
Table 12. Operations Performed Annually, by Sex and Type of Operation,
July 1 929-June 1 966 26
Table 13. State Institutional Operations Performed Annually, by Sex and
and Type of Operation, July 1 929-June 1966 27
Table 14. Non-Institutional Operations Performed Annually, by Sex and
Type of Operation, July 1 929-June 1966 28
Table 15. State Institutional Operations, by Institution, Sex, and
Type of Operation, July 1 929-June 1966 29
Table 16. Operations Performed, by Type of Operation and Race,
July 1 929-June 1 966 30
Table 17. Type of Operation Performed, by Age and Sex of Person,
July 1 929-June 1 966 30
Table 18. Operations Performed, by Type of Diagnosis, Source of
Petition, and Marital Status, July 1 929-June 1966 ._. 31
EUGENICS BOARD OF NORTH CAROLINA
R. EUGENE BROWN, Commissioner of Public Welfare, Chairman
T. WADE BRUTON, Attorney General of North Carolina
J. F. ELLIOTT, M.D., Superintendent, Murdoch Center, Butner,
North Carolina
EUGENE A. HARGROVE, M.D., Commissioner, North Carolina
Department of Mental Health
JACOB KOOMEN, M.D., State Health Director
SUE L. CASEBOLT, Executive Secretary
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
To his Excellency, DAN K. MOORE
Governor of North Carolina
Dear Sir:
I have the honor of submitting herewith the report of the
Eugenics Board of North Carolina for the biennial period dating
from July 1, 1964 through June 30, 1966.
Respectfully yours,
(\5^J.^dP*^'t'^-^2-. i&V^^-w^
Chairman
INTRODUCTION
The eugenical sterilization program of North Carolina is admin-istered
under Article 7, Chapter 35, of the General Statutes of
North Carolina, enacted in 1933. This law provides for the sterili-zation
of persons who are mentally ill, mentally retarded, or epilep-tic.
The law refers to the first two disabilities as the "mentally
diseased" and "feebleminded." in addition to objective evidence of
one of the three impairments, it must be shown as the result of
social, medical, psychiatric, and/or psychological study that sterili-zation
is applicable to the needs of the particular individual.
The purpose of sterilization as it is administered under the
North Carolina program is to protect persons from parenthood
whose impairments would seriously handicap them in assuming
the responsibilities of parents.
The law protects the individual in that it provides for the written
consent of the husband or wife or the nearest relative. It also pro-vides
for the right of a hearing and an appeal to the courts. These
latter rights are seldom exercised due to the fact that the in-dividual
and husband, or wife, or close relative usually participate
in the plan and make their own decision in favor of the operation
before the petition is initiated.
Petitions for the sterilization of non-institutional persons are
submitted to the Eugenics Board by the county directors of public
welfare. Petitions for the sterilization of State institutional resi-dents
are submitted by the superintendents of the institutions.
The program is administered by the Eugenics Board of North
Carolina with the assistance of an Executive Secretary. The Board
is composed of five members: The Commissioner of Public Welfare
of North Carolina; the Director of the State Board of Health; the
chief Medical officer of an institution for the mentally ill, or the
mentally retarded; the Commissioner of the State of North Caro-lina
Department of Mental Health; and the Attorney General of
North Carolina.
The eugenical sterilization program has now been in operation
for over twenty-five years. During this time the increased knowl-edge
in the field of mental health has revealed many causative
factors for mental illnes and mental retardation. Hereditary fac-tors
take their place among a vast number of other reasons for
these disabilities.
In keeping abreast of the expanding knowledge in the field of
mental health, the Eugenics Board has recognized that in order for
the sterilization program to be effective it must be regarded as an
integral part of a broad system of protection and supervision of
those individuals unable to meet their responsibilities as parents.
Over a period of years there has been a trend toward giving in-creased
emphasis to the value of sterilization for the particular
individual. Seldom is there evidence that sterilization is considered
as a single means of solving a problem. To the contrary, the pro-vision
is used increasingly qs one among many of the essential
resources in taking care of the needs of certain individuals. This
improvement in the use of the sterilization program is attributed
8 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
in a large degree to better qualified staffs in public welfare depart-ments
and in institutions and to the increased interest and co-operation
on the part of the medical profession.
DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE BIENNIUM
During the biennium, the Eugenics Board has held regular
monthly meetings and in addition has held special n-ieetings at the
request of petitioners. With the retirement of State Health Direc-tor,
Dr. J. W. R. Norton, his successor, Dr. Jacob Koomen, has
taken his place upon the Board.
To promote the program and its effective use, the Eugenics
Board has continued to use all available means of interpretation.
Because of unusual demands upon the staff in the county depart-ments
of public welfare, group meetings were temporarily dis-continued,
but discussion of the program has continued on an
individual basis with the staff of county departments of public
welfare, the State institutions for the mentally ill and mentally re-tarded,
and public health personnel. This has been chiefly the
responsibility of the Executive Secretary, and she has been aided
in individual cases by the field representatives, child welfare con-sultants,
and psychologists of the State Board of Public Welfare.
Attendance at a variety of meetings, both state and local, also has
been used to promote the program.
The Executive Secretary participated in a Management Seminar
conducted by the Institute of Government during this period as
well OS special institutes on the needs of the mentally retarded.
The Eugenics Board is a member of the North Carolina Health
Council and the Mental Health Council and has been regularly
represented at the meetings of these organizations.
Feature articles have been prepared for the press as well as for
publications of various State agencies.
The manual of the Eugenics Board has been kept up-to-date as
changes have occurred and has been widely distributed to appro-priate
agencies in the State.
There has been consistent interest in the use of the program
and as lower case loads in welfare departments become more wide-spread,
this is expected to increase.
PROGRAM STATISTICS
During the biennium, 461 petitions were presented to the
Eugenics Board for review. Operations were authorized in 368
cases, amounting to 79.8 per cent of the petitions. There were 356
operations performed, or 96.7 per cent of the operations author-ized.
Some of the operations performed hod been authorized in the
previous biennium, and some of the operations authorized during
the 1964-66 biennium could not be performed until the following
biennium.
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 9
Of the 356 operations, 350 were performed upon women and
only 6—1.7 per cent of the total—were performed upon men.
Rarely are asexualizations ordered by the Eugenics Board, and
there were none ordered during the biennium.
Fifty-eight operations performed were for persons in State insti-tutions:
Eighteen at Cherry Hospital at Goldsboro; seventeen at
Broughton l-iospital at Morganton; five at John Umstead Hospital
at Butner; three at Dorothea Dix Hospital at Raleigh; ten at
Caswell Center at Kinston; three at Murdoch Center at Butner;
and two at O'Berry Center at Goldsboro. The remaining 298 per-sons
having operations were non-institutional cases. Petitions for
their operations originated in county departments of public wel-fare.
The 316 non-institutional operations authorized were upon peti-tions
received from 73 of the 100 counties of the State. The 298
non-institutional operations performed were for 75 different coun-ties.
Counties with the highest number of non-institutional opera-tions
during the biennium were: Mecklenburg—26; Rowan—12;
Wayne—12; Durham—11; New Hanover—10.
Of the 356 persons having operations, 124 were white, 228
Neg.-o, and 4 Indian. The majority of the persons sterilized were
adolescents or young adults: 38.2 per cent were between 20 and 30
years of age, and 46.6 per cent were under 20.
The operations for sterilization were performed because of the
following conditions: 308, or 86.5 per cent, because of "feeble-mindedness";
47, or 13.2 per cent, because of "mental disease";
and 1, or 0.3 per cent, because of "epilepsy."
More than three-fourths, or 274 persons, sterilized were single.
One in ten, or 38 persons, were married. The remaining 44 were
widowed, divorced, or separated from their spouses.
Seventy-three per cent of the 356 persons having operations
(261 persons) had already had children prior to the operation, ',l^-
cluding 55 who had had five children or more each. The 261
persons were the parents of 775 children; 425, or 55 per cent, of
these children were reported to have been born out-of-wedlock.
There continues to be a decline in the number of sterilizations
requested by State institutions, and the general improvement in as
well as wider availability of medical means of birth control have
made sterilization of non-institutional persons less pressing.
The Eugenics Board wishes to express its appreciation to the
professional persons and to the general public who have con-tributed
to the success of the program.
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina n
FINANCIAL REPORT OF EUGENICS BOARD, 1964-1966
Item
Expenditures
Actual
1 964-65
Actual
1965-66
Salaries and Wages
Supplies and Materials ——
Postage, Telephone and Telegraph
Travel Expense -—
Printing and Binding —
.
General Expense
Equipment
Repairs and Alterations
$11,008.00
26.43
403.98
147.10
262.56
15.00
67.62
36.73
$12,466.00
49.07
302.22
9.85
190.47
15.00
21.42
$11,967.42 $13,054.03
TABLE 1-10
STATISTICAL REPORT ON EUGENICAL STERILIZATION
DURING THE 1964-1966 BIENNIUM
14 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
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16 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
State
TABLE 5
Institutional Operations Authorized and Performed,
by County of Residence
July 1964 -June 1966
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 17
TABLE 5 (Continued)
County of
Residence
Hyde
Iredell
Jackson
Johnston
Jones
Lee
Lenoir
Lincoln
Macon
Madison
Martin
McDowell
Mecklenburg _
Mitchell
Montgomery .
Moore
Nosh
New Hanover
Northampton
Onslow
Orange
Pamlico
Pasquotank —
Pender
Perquimans —
.
Person
Pitt
Polk
Randolph
Richmond
Robeson
Rockingham
Rowan
Rutherford
Sampson
Scotland
Stanly
Stokes
Surry
Swain
Transylvania _.
Tyrrell
Union
Vance
i Wake
Warren
Washington ....
Watauga
Wayne
I Wilkes
Wilson .-
'' Yadkin
Yancey
Total Operations
Authorized Performed
2
1
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
3
2
2
1
July 1964-June 1965
Operations
Authorized
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Performed
2
1
1
2
2
1
1
July 1965-June 1966
Operations
Authorized Performed
18 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
TABLE 6
Non-Institutional Operations Authorized and Performed,
by County of Residence
July 1964-June 1966
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 19
TABLE 6 (Continued)
County of
Residence
Hyde
Iredell
Jackson
Johnston
Jones
Lee
Lenoir
Lincoln
Macon
Madison
Martin
McDowell
Mecklenburg
Mitchell
Montgomery .
Moore
Nash
New Hanover
Northampton
Onslow
Orange
Pamlico
Pasquotank ...
Pender
Perquimans .__
Person
Pitt
Polk
Randolph ._
Richmond
Robeson
Rockingham ._
Rowan
Rutherford
Sampson
Scotland
Stanly
Stokes
Surry
Swain
Transylvania -
Tyrrell
Union
Vance
Wake
Warren
Washington —
Watauga
Wayne
Wilkes
Wilson
Yadkin
Yancey
Total Operations
Authorized Performed
3
1
6
4
1
1
2
1
2
29
4
5
14
1
6
2
2
5
2
5
7
5
1
2
14
1
2
10
3
1
1
1
1
10
5
1
14
2
3
1
4
1
7
1
4
1
1
1
1
2
26
3
4
10
3
3
3
1
5
1
5
7
4
1
4
12
1
2
9
1
1
1
1
8
3
1
12
2
4
1
July 1964-June 1965
Operations
Authorized
1
3
2
1
1
1
1
13
4
1
6
1
5
1
1
4
1
4
6
10
1
4
1
1
6
2
1
9
1
2
1
Performed
4
1
3
16
2
1
5
3
2
1
4
1
4
2
1
3
11
1
1
3
1
1
July 1965-June 1966
Operations
Authorized
2
1
3
2
1
16
4
8
4
1
2
4
1
1
6
2
1
1
4
3
5
1
1
Performed
1
1
3
1
1
1
2
10
1
3
5
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
6
1
1
6
3
1
7
2
1
20 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
TABLE 7
Operations Performed, by Type of Operation and Race
July 1964-June 1966
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 21
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TABLES 11-18
HISTORICAL DATA ON EUGENICAL STERILIZATION
IN NORTH CAROLINA
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 25
TABLE 11
Coses Handled by Biennial Periods
July 1933 -June 1966
Biennial Period
26 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
TABLE 12
Operations Performed Annually, by Sex and Type of Operation
July 1929 -June 1966
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 27
TABLE 13
State Institutional Operations Performed Annually,
by Sex and Type of Operation
July 1929 -June 1966
28 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
TABLE 14
Non-Institutional Operations Perfornned Annually
by Sex and Type of Operation
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina 29
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30 Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
TABLE 16
Operations Performed, by Type of Operation and Race
July 1929-June 1966
Type of Operation
Biennial Report of The Eugenics Board of North Carolina
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UNC CH HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY
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III I
H00006283
HQ 750 .Al N86U.U 1935
North Carolina. Eugenics "board.
Eugenical sterilization in
North Carolina