[Surgical sterilization and mental disorder. A case study]

The author examines the intellectual, social and political conditions which permitted the introduction of compulsory sterilization of mentally ill as a lawful measure in the Canton of Vaud in 1928. Essential was the fear of "degenerated" and socially harmful progeny prejudicial to the existing order. The victims of this regulation were mostly feeble-minded women--the poorest and least respected members of community.