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  • Title: [Case study: debut of legal sterilization of mentally ill patients in the Vaud canton].
    Author: Gasser J, Heller G.
    Journal: Gesnerus; 1997; 54(3-4):242-50. PubMed ID: 9487754.
    Abstract:
    The topic of genetic transmission of mental diseases appears early in the psychiatric literature. Among the consequences of these theories in the Swiss canton Vaud a law was enacted in 1928 concerning the sterilization of persons affected by "mental disease or mental disability". This short communication presents a selection of case histories which sheds light on the first years after the enactment of this law. Discussion of the hereditary transmission of mental illnesses is seen early in the texts on psychiatry. In the Swiss canton of Vaud, one consequence of these psychiatric theories was the imposition in 1928 of a new law concerning the sterilization of mentally ill individuals. This article of law states that a person who is mentally ill or less than mentally sound can be forced through a medical order to bear no children. This was the first law in Europe to legislate on the practice of sterilization with the goal of curbing the hereditary transmission of mental illness, although such practice had already been in place for years in Zurich and Vaud canton. 2 cases in which sterilization was approved and 2 cases in which it was refused are described in the context of the first years of this new law. While the law was protective and reduced the incidence of some sterilizations performed only or mainly for reasons of the individual¿s poverty, alcoholism, and/or social behavior, it failed to protect all young women from abuse. Moreover, the law was sometimes ignored.
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