Harry H. Laughlin

Sterilization Laws Sterilizations were performed before the surgery was legally approved Indiana enacted the first law allowing sterilization on eugenic ground in 1907 Connecticut followed soon after Sterilization did not gain widespread popular approval until the late 1920s Advocacy in favor of sterilization was one of Harry Laughlin?s first major projects at the ERO In 1914, he published a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law Proposed to authorize sterilization of the ?socially inadequate? Included ?feebleminded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriate, diseased, blind, dead, deformed, and dependent? ?orphans, ne?er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers? 12 states had already enacted sterilization laws