BIBLIOGRAPHY:
THE
EARLY EUGENIC MOVEMENT IN INDIANA AND THE U.S.
Overview: A biography of
many of the major players in the Eugenics Movement.
Henri G. Bogart, a physician from Brookville, Indiana,
and a supporter of Harry Sharp published the article "Sterilization
'the Indiana Plan'" (later renamed "Sterilization
of the Unfit") in the Texas Medical Journal in 1911. His article
was instrumental in the promotion not only of Indiana as a forerunner
of medical eugenics, but also of sterilization statutes nationwide.
Frank J. Hanly was governor of Indiana when the
sterilization statute was passed. A conservative Republican, Hanly
advocated a broad range of legal reforms to "moral"
issues such as alcohol and miscegenation.
John
N. Hurty was the Secretary of State and State Health Officer
for the Indiana State Board of Health. As an advocate of institutionalization
and sterilization, Hurty became President of the American Public
Health Association and gave his 1911 presidential address on "Rural
Hygiene." Infuriating many, Hurty announced, "The physician
must take an active part in race hygiene, or he may be replaced
in this capacity by the rise of a new profession."*
In an earlier address given December 13, 1907, Hurty proclaimed
that degeneracy was a defect that cannot be cured. Hurty believed
that his subjects, after sterilization, would benefit from improved
behavior, physical health, and moral interests.
Dr. Joseph Iutzi was one of the first Indianans
to address the controversy over heredity vs. environment. His 1882
paper "Heredity and Its Relations to Disease" did acknowledge
the influence of environment, but mostly argued for the hereditary
nature of insanity, and of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Thomas
R. Marshall, a Democrat, was elected governor of Indiana
in 1908, and declared a moratorium on the sterilization statute
in 1909. The law was not officially deemed unconstitutional until
1921.
The
Tribe of Ishmael was a family of "paupers"
studied by the Reverend Oscar C. McCulloch as part of a plan made
by Indianapolis in 1876 to reduce pauperism and "degenerate"
families. McCulloch traces the Ishmael family lineage to 1790, noting
that they are intermarried, murderous, and have large number of
illegitimacies and prostitutes. The Ishmael family typified the
near 400 families that roamed shiftless around the state of Indiana
in the 1800s. These families were typically diseased and their children
died young. They survived by stealing, begging, and ash gathering
and had been to known to live in hollow trees, river bottoms, or
vacant houses. Specious although well-intentioned, this and other
"studies" of the lifestyle and habits of pauper families
nationwide (such as the Jukes and the Kallikaks) provided fuel for
the implementation of eugenic legislation.
Dr.
Harry C. Sharp was Indiana's primary advocate of
sterilization. In 1899 Sharp began performing vasectomies in Jeffersonville,
Indiana, and had carried out almost 225 before any legislation was
passed. Dr. Sharp was active in promoting sterilization legislature
for "race purity and civic righteousness." He believed
that the operation actually improved overall health, and his patients
often asserted hearty approval of the operation.
Dr.
Gonzalva B. Smythe, a Greencastle resident, helped sow
the seeds for eugenic legislation in his 1891 Presidential Address
to the Indiana Medical Society, in which he argued that insanity,
alcoholism, and criminality were not only inherited, but proved
a drain on state funds.
W.
H. Whittaker served as superintendent of the Indiana State
Reformatory in Jeffersonville. During his tenure from 1905 to 1909,
he actively lobbied state lawmakers to pass a sterilization statue,
most importantly by drafting the statute that became law in 1907.
*Thurman
B. Rice, The Hoosier Health Officer: A Biography of Dr. John N.
Hurty and the History of the Indiana State Board of Health to 1926.
See bibliography for more information.
eugenics in indiana
Last Modified: June 16, 2003
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