Harry H. Laughlin publishes <i>Eugenical Sterilization in the United States</i>

Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States

1922. Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. The volume contains details on sterilization laws in the United States, as well as ideal models for laws to take shape. It was influential not only in the United States, but also Germany, where the 1933 sterilization laws were also modeled after Laughlin’s work in this volume.

Laughlin was superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) at Cold Spring Harbor in New York from 1910 to 1921 and then its assistant director until 1939. He also served as the “eugenics expert” for the Committee on Immigration and Naturalizations and assisted Charles B. Davenport in publishing the ERO’s Eugenical News to promote the activities of the office. Laughlin collected details on every sterilization law in America, having surveyed more than 160 institutions in the United States and collected thousands of manuscript pages of text.

In 1920 he approached the National Committee on Mental Hygiene to review the manuscript, and also the Bureau of Social Hygiene to publish the text. In 1922, he compiled and published his report.

The volume included “model sterilization laws” designed to address many of the challenges facing the eugenic sterilization laws already enacted in various American states. This model law went on to influence the enactment of sterilization laws in 18 US states. Laughlin identified numerous "socially inadequate persons" for sterilization, including the feeble-minded, the insane, criminals, epileptics, alcoholics, the blind, the deaf, and the deformed. In addition to widespread influence within the United States, Laughlin's model law also provided the basis for Germany's 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.

The full text of the "model sterilization law" is available here.

-Sheila Gibbons and Amy Dyrbye

  • Biography of Harry H. Laughlin. (2014). Special Collections University Archives: Truman State University. Retrieved from http://library.truman.edu/manuscripts/laughlinbio.asp.

  • Rites for Dr. Harry Laughlin here today. (1943, January 27). Kirksville Daily Express.

  • Lombardo, P. (2008). Three Generations NO Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Reilly, P.R. (1999). Laughlin, Harry Hamilton. American National Biography, 13, 252.

Harry H. Laughlin publishes <i>Eugenical Sterilization in the United States</i>

Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States

1922. Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. The volume contains details on sterilization laws in the United States, as well as ideal models for laws to take shape. It was influential not only in the United States, but also Germany, where the 1933 sterilization laws were also modeled after Laughlin’s work in this volume.

Laughlin was superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) at Cold Spring Harbor in New York from 1910 to 1921 and then its assistant director until 1939. He also served as the “eugenics expert” for the Committee on Immigration and Naturalizations and assisted Charles B. Davenport in publishing the ERO’s Eugenical News to promote the activities of the office. Laughlin collected details on every sterilization law in America, having surveyed more than 160 institutions in the United States and collected thousands of manuscript pages of text.

In 1920 he approached the National Committee on Mental Hygiene to review the manuscript, and also the Bureau of Social Hygiene to publish the text. In 1922, he compiled and published his report.

The volume included “model sterilization laws” designed to address many of the challenges facing the eugenic sterilization laws already enacted in various American states. This model law went on to influence the enactment of sterilization laws in 18 US states. Laughlin identified numerous "socially inadequate persons" for sterilization, including the feeble-minded, the insane, criminals, epileptics, alcoholics, the blind, the deaf, and the deformed. In addition to widespread influence within the United States, Laughlin's model law also provided the basis for Germany's 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.

The full text of the "model sterilization law" is available here.

-Sheila Gibbons and Amy Dyrbye

  • Biography of Harry H. Laughlin. (2014). Special Collections University Archives: Truman State University. Retrieved from http://library.truman.edu/manuscripts/laughlinbio.asp.

  • Rites for Dr. Harry Laughlin here today. (1943, January 27). Kirksville Daily Express.

  • Lombardo, P. (2008). Three Generations NO Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Reilly, P.R. (1999). Laughlin, Harry Hamilton. American National Biography, 13, 252.

Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States

1922. Harry H. Laughlin publishes Eugenical Sterilization in the United States. The volume contains details on sterilization laws in the United States, as well as ideal models for laws to take shape. It was influential not only in the United States, but also Germany, where the 1933 sterilization laws were also modeled after Laughlin’s work in this volume.

Laughlin was superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) at Cold Spring Harbor in New York from 1910 to 1921 and then its assistant director until 1939. He also served as the “eugenics expert” for the Committee on Immigration and Naturalizations and assisted Charles B. Davenport in publishing the ERO’s Eugenical News to promote the activities of the office. Laughlin collected details on every sterilization law in America, having surveyed more than 160 institutions in the United States and collected thousands of manuscript pages of text.

In 1920 he approached the National Committee on Mental Hygiene to review the manuscript, and also the Bureau of Social Hygiene to publish the text. In 1922, he compiled and published his report.

The volume included “model sterilization laws” designed to address many of the challenges facing the eugenic sterilization laws already enacted in various American states. This model law went on to influence the enactment of sterilization laws in 18 US states. Laughlin identified numerous "socially inadequate persons" for sterilization, including the feeble-minded, the insane, criminals, epileptics, alcoholics, the blind, the deaf, and the deformed. In addition to widespread influence within the United States, Laughlin's model law also provided the basis for Germany's 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.

The full text of the "model sterilization law" is available here.

-Sheila Gibbons and Amy Dyrbye

  • Biography of Harry H. Laughlin. (2014). Special Collections University Archives: Truman State University. Retrieved from http://library.truman.edu/manuscripts/laughlinbio.asp.

  • Rites for Dr. Harry Laughlin here today. (1943, January 27). Kirksville Daily Express.

  • Lombardo, P. (2008). Three Generations NO Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Reilly, P.R. (1999). Laughlin, Harry Hamilton. American National Biography, 13, 252.