Experts at work: State autonomy, social learning and eugenic sterilization in 1930s Britain

British Journal of Political Science

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 77-107

  King, Desmond ^a   Hansen, Randall ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADVISORY COMMITTEE; ARTICLE; BROCK COMMITTEE (GREAT BRITAIN); CONFLICT; CONTRACEPTION; EUGENICS SOCIETY; GENETICS AND REPRODUCTION; GROUP PROCESS; HISTORY; HUMAN; INFORMED CONSENT; MEDICAL GENETICS; MENTAL CAPACITY; MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIES; MENTAL PATIENT; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; POLICY; POLITICS; PUBLIC OPINION; REPRODUCTION; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOCIOECONOMICS; UNITED KINGDOM;

BROCK COMMITTEE (GREAT BRITAIN); EUGENICS SOCIETY; GENETICS AND REPRODUCTION; MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIES;

ADVISORY COMMITTEES; COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP; DISSENT AND DISPUTES; EUGENICS; GREAT BRITAIN; GROUP PROCESSES; HISTORY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; INFORMED CONSENT; MENTAL COMPETENCY; MENTALLY DISABLED PERSONS; MENTALLY ILL PERSONS; ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION; POLITICS; PUBLIC OPINION; PUBLIC POLICY; REPRODUCTION; SOCIAL PROBLEMS; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; STERILIZATION, REPRODUCTIVE;

EID: 0032600372     PISSN: 00071234     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007123499000046     Document Type: Article

References (199)

1. For a history of the Eugenics Society and its aims, see P. M. H. Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings: The Eugenics Society, its Sources and its Critics in Britain (London: Routledge, 1992). For the movement generally see D. J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Harmondsworth, Midx: Penguin Books, 1986); and Nancy Leys Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
2. For a history of the Eugenics Society and its aims, see P. M. H. Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings: The Eugenics Society, its Sources and its Critics in Britain (London: Routledge, 1992). For the movement generally see D. J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Harmondsworth, Midx: Penguin Books, 1986); and Nancy Leys Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
3. For a history of the Eugenics Society and its aims, see P. M. H. Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings: The Eugenics Society, its Sources and its Critics in Britain (London: Routledge, 1992). For the movement generally see D. J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Harmondsworth, Midx: Penguin Books, 1986); and Nancy Leys Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
4. According to this perspective, governmental institutions possess interests distinct from the accumulated force of public opinion and interest group pressure; and, furthermore, state actors pursue these interests through supporting policies and positions in the absence of a compelling public demand to do so. See P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer and T. Skocpol, eds, Bringing the State Back In (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985); and E. A. Nordlinger, On the Autonomy of the Democratic State (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981).
5. According to this perspective, governmental institutions possess interests distinct from the accumulated force of public opinion and interest group pressure; and, furthermore, state actors pursue these interests through supporting policies and positions in the absence of a compelling public demand to do so. See P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer and T. Skocpol, eds, Bringing the State Back In (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985); and E. A. Nordlinger, On the Autonomy of the Democratic State (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981).
6. K. Thelen and S. Steinmo, 'Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics', in S. Steinmo, K. Thelen and F. Longstreth, eds, Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and see P. Pierson, 'The Path to European Integration: A Historical Institutionalist Account,' Comparative Political Studies, 29 (1996), 123-63.
7. K. Thelen and S. Steinmo, 'Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics', in S. Steinmo, K. Thelen and F. Longstreth, eds, Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and see P. Pierson, 'The Path to European Integration: A Historical Institutionalist Account,' Comparative Political Studies, 29 (1996), 123-63.
8. See the contributions in P. A. Hall, ed., The Political Power of Economic Ideas (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
9. Hugh Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden: From Relief to Income Maintenance (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1974).
10. T. Skocpol, 'Bringing the State Back In', in Evans et al., eds, Bringing the State Back In, p. 12.
11. P. A. Hall, 'Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain', Comparative Politics, 25 (1993), 275-96, p. 276.
12. Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden, p. 305. See also P. Sacks, 'State Structure and Asymmetrical Policy', Comparative Politics, 12 (1980), 349-76, p. 356.
13. Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden, p. 305. See also P. Sacks, 'State Structure and Asymmetrical Policy', Comparative Politics, 12 (1980), 349-76, p. 356.
14. Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden, pp. 301-2.
15. Much American work, and the forced voluntary sterilization which it recommended, was rejected by the committee ostensibly on the grounds of its inadequate scientific quality.
16. Heclo, Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden, p. 305.
17. Heclo's work adopts the most positive view of social learning's implications. Others view it as a value-neutral process, the unproblematic subject of positive political science. See R. Deeg, 'Institutional Transfer, Social Learning and Economic Policy in Eastern Germany', West European Politics, 18 (1995), 38-63; M. J. Oliver, 'Social Learning and Macroeconomic Policymaking in the United Kingdom Since 1979', Essays in Economic and Business History, 14 (1996), 117-31; and Richard Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning Across Time and Space (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1993).
18. Heclo's work adopts the most positive view of social learning's implications. Others view it as a value-neutral process, the unproblematic subject of positive political science. See R. Deeg, 'Institutional Transfer, Social Learning and Economic Policy in Eastern Germany', West European Politics, 18 (1995), 38-63; M. J. Oliver, 'Social Learning and Macroeconomic Policymaking in the United Kingdom Since 1979', Essays in Economic and Business History, 14 (1996), 117-31; and Richard Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning Across Time and Space (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1993).
19. Heclo's work adopts the most positive view of social learning's implications. Others view it as a value-neutral process, the unproblematic subject of positive political science. See R. Deeg, 'Institutional Transfer, Social Learning and Economic Policy in Eastern Germany', West European Politics, 18 (1995), 38-63; M. J. Oliver, 'Social Learning and Macroeconomic Policymaking in the United Kingdom Since 1979', Essays in Economic and Business History, 14 (1996), 117-31; and Richard Rose, Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy: A Guide to Learning Across Time and Space (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1993).
20. While it is true that theories designed to illuminate the policy process are often simply neutral on normative questions, Heclo's laudatory view of the consequences contains an implicit, if not explicit, normative element.
21. Fabians, rather than liberals, found the eugenic views about improving the race through systematic and putatively scientific measures most attractive, though they were unpersuaded about claims resting on individual moral failing or inherited inadequacy. Fabians advocated social policy - such as family or child allowances - rather than sterilization. See M. Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought: A Study in Ideological Affinity', Historical Journal, 22 (1979), 645-71.
22. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
23. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
24. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
25. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
26. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
27. The precise composition of what can broadly be called the 'eugenics movement' is a matter of some scholarly debate. See in particular, Freeden, 'Eugenics and Progressive Thought'; G. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', Historical Journal, 25 (1982), 717-28; G. Jones, Social Hygiene in Twentieth Century Britain (London: Croom Helm, 1986); D. Paul, 'Eugenics and the Left', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1984), 567-90; D. B. Paul, 'Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices', Social Research, 59 (1992), 663-83; and G. R. Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914 (Leiden: Noordoff Publishing International, 1976).
28. The Act was a watered-down version of legislation recommended by the Royal Commission for the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded (1908). The powers realized in the Act diluted those initially proposed, as legislators worried about the implications for individual liberty of the eugenic project. The final bill included no direct use of the term 'eugenics', and the definition of the persons 'defective' was circumspect. It did, however, retain the right to impose mandatory institutionalization of certified mental defectives. On the 1913 Act, see D. Barker, 'The Biology of Stupidity: Genetics, Eugenics and Mental Deficiency in the Inter-War Years', British Journal of the History of Science, 22 (1989), 347-75; and E. J. Larson, 'The Rhetoric of Eugenics: Expert Authority and the Mental Deficiency Bill', British Journal of the History of Science, 24 (1991), 45-60. The debate, Larson concludes, revealed a clear distrust of eugenics and eugenists.
29. The Act was a watered-down version of legislation recommended by the Royal Commission for the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded (1908). The powers realized in the Act diluted those initially proposed, as legislators worried about the implications for individual liberty of the eugenic project. The final bill included no direct use of the term 'eugenics', and the definition of the persons 'defective' was circumspect. It did, however, retain the right to impose mandatory institutionalization of certified mental defectives. On the 1913 Act, see D. Barker, 'The Biology of Stupidity: Genetics, Eugenics and Mental Deficiency in the Inter-War Years', British Journal of the History of Science, 22 (1989), 347-75; and E. J. Larson, 'The Rhetoric of Eugenics: Expert Authority and the Mental Deficiency Bill', British Journal of the History of Science, 24 (1991), 45-60. The debate, Larson concludes, revealed a clear distrust of eugenics and eugenists.
30. On this division over strategies, see D. Barker 'How to Curb the Fertility of the Unfit: The Feeble-Minded in Edwardian Britain', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 197-211, pp. 201-5; and Larson 'The Rhetoric of Eugenics'.
31. On this division over strategies, see D. Barker 'How to Curb the Fertility of the Unfit: The Feeble-Minded in Edwardian Britain', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 197-211, pp. 201-5; and Larson 'The Rhetoric of Eugenics'.
32. Nevertheless, the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 did give a role to involuntary institutionalization, which constituted de facto segregation.
33. J. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign in Britain, 1918-39', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2 (1992), 422-37, p. 428.
34. See Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration (London: HMSO, Cd 2175, 1904).
35. G. R. Searle, The Quest for National Efficiency: A Study in British Politics and Political Thought, 1899-1914 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1971), p. 54.
36. See M. Freeden, The New Liberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 185-94; and Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914.
37. See M. Freeden, The New Liberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), pp. 185-94; and Searle, Eugenics and Politics in Britain 1900-1914.
38. The society's foundation was part of an international trend: the German Society for Racial Hygiene was founded (in Berlin) in 1905, the Eugenics Record Office in the United States in 1910, and the French Eugenics Society (in Paris) in 1912.
39. Cited in Freeden, New Liberalism, pp. 188-9.
40. 'I am convinced that the multiplication of the Feeble-Minded, which is proceeding now at an artificial rate, unchecked by any of the old constraints of nature, and actually fostered by civilised conditions, is a very terrible danger to the race. The number of children in feeble-minded families is calculated at 7.4; whereas in normal families it is but 4.2 ... [There are] 12,000 feeble-minded and defective children in the Special Schools; many others are in residential homes... The girls come out by the thousand at 16, are the mothers of imbeciles at 17, and thereafter with surprising regularity frequent our workhouse lying-in wards year by year. The males contribute an ever broadening streak to the insane or half insane crime which darkens the life of our towns and fills the convict prisons.' (In The Asquith Papers MSS Asquith 12, letter from Churchill to Asquith December 1910.) See also the Public Record Office (PRO), Kew, London, HO144/1098/197900, and P. Addison, Churchill on the Home Front 1900-1955 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1992).
41. H. Simmons, 'Explaining Social Policy: The English Mental Deficiency Act of 1913', Journal of Social History, 11 (1978), 387-403, p. 395.
42. On the social bases of the British eugenics movement, see D. MacKenzie, 'Eugenics in Britain', Social Studies in Science, 6 (1976), 499-532; D. MacKenzie, 'Karl Pearson and the Professional Middle Class', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 125-43; and L. J. Ray, 'Eugenics, Mental Deficiency and Fabian Socialism between the Wars', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 213-22. For an authoritative and cogent critique which locates support for eugenics in a narrow occupational group, see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Class', in C. Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society 1840-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
43. On the social bases of the British eugenics movement, see D. MacKenzie, 'Eugenics in Britain', Social Studies in Science, 6 (1976), 499-532; D. MacKenzie, 'Karl Pearson and the Professional Middle Class', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 125-43; and L. J. Ray, 'Eugenics, Mental Deficiency and Fabian Socialism between the Wars', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 213-22. For an authoritative and cogent critique which locates support for eugenics in a narrow occupational group, see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Class', in C. Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society 1840-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
44. On the social bases of the British eugenics movement, see D. MacKenzie, 'Eugenics in Britain', Social Studies in Science, 6 (1976), 499-532; D. MacKenzie, 'Karl Pearson and the Professional Middle Class', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 125-43; and L. J. Ray, 'Eugenics, Mental Deficiency and Fabian Socialism between the Wars', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 213-22. For an authoritative and cogent critique which locates support for eugenics in a narrow occupational group, see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Class', in C. Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society 1840-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
45. On the social bases of the British eugenics movement, see D. MacKenzie, 'Eugenics in Britain', Social Studies in Science, 6 (1976), 499-532; D. MacKenzie, 'Karl Pearson and the Professional Middle Class', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 125-43; and L. J. Ray, 'Eugenics, Mental Deficiency and Fabian Socialism between the Wars', Oxford Review of Education, 9 (1983), 213-22. For an authoritative and cogent critique which locates support for eugenics in a narrow occupational group, see G. R. Searle, 'Eugenics and Class', in C. Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society 1840-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
46. Barker, 'How to Curb the Fertility of the Unfit', p. 207.
47. Eugenics Review, 24 (1932), p. 9.
48. Searle, The Quest for National Efficiency, p. 61.
49. R. A. Soloway, Demography and Degeneration (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. xxviii-xxiv.
50. Report of the Mental Deficiency Committee (Wood Report) (London: HSMO, 1929).
51. Macnicol 'The Voluntary Sterilisation Campaign', p. 429.
52. Wood Report, Part I, pp. 11-12.
53. Wood Report, p. 83.
54. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilisation Campaign', p. 429.
55. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', p. 726. There were critics of the Wood Report (notably the Distributist League which characterized the study as a 'gratuitous advertisement of the eugenic theory'). See PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the League to the Minister of Health, Arthur Greenwood, September 1929. These were, however, a minority of elite opinion makers.
56. Jones, 'Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars', p. 726. There were critics of the Wood Report (notably the Distributist League which characterized the study as a 'gratuitous advertisement of the eugenic theory'). See PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the League to the Minister of Health, Arthur Greenwood, September 1929. These were, however, a minority of elite opinion makers.
57. House of Commons Debates (Hansard) 5s, vol. 255, 21 July 1931, cols. 1245-58; the supporters included Sir Donal MacLean, Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Guinness and Lieutenant-Colonel Freemantle. Macnicol argues that Church was an untypical Labour party member, holding his seat briefly (in 1923-24 and 1929-31) and representing a white-collar union. He cites the Roman Catholic Labour MP, Dr Hyacinth Morgan - who led the opposition in the Commons to the bill - as more representative of the Labour party's stance on sterilization, particularly of the party view that such measures would be concentrated on a single class of citizens. See J. Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization in Britain Between the Wars', Social History of Medicine, 2 (1989), 147-69.
58. R. A. Soloway, Demography and Degeneration: Eugenics and the Declining Birthrate in Twentieth Century Britain (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 198-9.
59. The Board of Control was established, in 1913, as the successor to the Lunacy Commission (in existence since 1845), with responsibility for pauper lunatics; all other responsibility for public health was assumed by the Ministry in Health when, in 1919, it replaced the Local Government Board.
60. The association passed a resolution in July 1929 calling for an enquiry into sterilization (see PRO, MH58/103, Resolution passed at meeting of the Executive Council of Central Association for Mental Welfare, 8 July 1929). The association had links with the Eugenics Society, and it was an active promoter of sterilization.
61. The County Councils Association (CCA), the Association of Municipal Corporations (AMC) and the Mental Hospitals Association (MHA), had lobbied for well over a year to be seen by the minister; see, for example, PRO, MH58/103, letter from the Mental Hospitals Association to the Secretary, Ministry of Health, 27 November 1931. For the eventual deputation in February 1932, see PRO, MH58/103, Deputation from CCA, AMC, and MHA, Brief for the Minister's reply.
62. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilisation Campaign', p. 430. The influence of the Eugenics Society in the appointment of the committee is beyond doubt. C. P. Blacker, the general secretary of the Eugenics Society in the 1930s, stated in private correspondence that the society attempted to create the impression that the demand for an enquiry originated in these groups, when in fact it led the campaign (see CMAC, SA/EUG/D. 219, 2 January 1936).
63. PRO, MH58/103, Minute from Arthur Robinson to Minister for Health, 18 April 1929, p. 2.
64. PRO, MH58/103, Minute from Arthur Robinson to Minister for Health, 18 April 1929, p. 2.
65. PRO, MH58/103, Minute to Minister by Arthur Robinson, 14 January 1932.
66. PRO, MH58/103, Minute at the Ministry of Health, 8 December 1931.
67. Heclo, Modern Social Polities in Britain and Sweden, p. 305.
68. PRO, MH58/104A, Minute, Ministry of Health, 21 March 1932.
69. A letter was sent to each health and local authority (that is, the Clerk to the County Council, the Town Clerk and the Clerk to the Mental Deficiency Committee) requesting it to fill in a form about defectives' children in its area. See PRO, MH51/209, draft letter and questionaire, 28 October 1932.
70. Report of the Departmental Committee on Sterilisation (Brock Report) (London: HMSO, Cmd 4485, 1934) in Parliamentary Papers, 15 (1934), p. 611.
71. Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' pp. 165, 157.
72. PRO, MH51/210, Chairman's Memorandum, n.d.
73. PRO, MH79/292, Brock to Robinson, 16 March 1932.
74. PRO, MH79 292, letter of 22 April 1932 from Brock to Robinson about the committee's membership; and Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization', p. 167.
75. PRO, MH79 292, letter of 22 April 1932 from Brock to Robinson about the committee's membership; and Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization', p. 167.
76. See EUG./D 50, Brock to Blacker, 31 July 1934; EUG./D 214, Blacker to Lord Moynihan, 7 August 1931; and Eug./D 50, Blacker to Brock, 25 May 1936, cited in Macnicol 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' in p. 163. The claim that sterilization was class-biased dogged the committee throughout and led it to the debatable claim that 'sterilization ought to be regarded as a right and not as a punishment' (Brock Report p. 40).
77. See EUG./D 50, Brock to Blacker, 31 July 1934; EUG./D 214, Blacker to Lord Moynihan, 7 August 1931; and Eug./D 50, Blacker to Brock, 25 May 1936, cited in Macnicol 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' in p. 163. The claim that sterilization was class-biased dogged the committee throughout and led it to the debatable claim that 'sterilization ought to be regarded as a right and not as a punishment' (Brock Report p. 40).
78. See EUG./D 50, Brock to Blacker, 31 July 1934; EUG./D 214, Blacker to Lord Moynihan, 7 August 1931; and Eug./D 50, Blacker to Brock, 25 May 1936, cited in Macnicol 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' in p. 163. The claim that sterilization was class-biased dogged the committee throughout and led it to the debatable claim that 'sterilization ought to be regarded as a right and not as a punishment' (Brock Report p. 40).
79. See EUG./D 50, Brock to Blacker, 31 July 1934; EUG./D 214, Blacker to Lord Moynihan, 7 August 1931; and Eug./D 50, Blacker to Brock, 25 May 1936, cited in Macnicol 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' in p. 163. The claim that sterilization was class-biased dogged the committee throughout and led it to the debatable claim that 'sterilization ought to be regarded as a right and not as a punishment' (Brock Report p. 40).
80. See EUG./D 50, Brock to Blacker, 31 July 1934; EUG./D 214, Blacker to Lord Moynihan, 7 August 1931; and Eug./D 50, Blacker to Brock, 25 May 1936, cited in Macnicol 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization' in p. 163. The claim that sterilization was class-biased dogged the committee throughout and led it to the debatable claim that 'sterilization ought to be regarded as a right and not as a punishment' (Brock Report p. 40).
81. D. Collingridge and C. Reeve, Science Speaks to Power (London: Frances Pinter, 1986), p. 18.
82. Collingridge and Reeve, Science Speaks to Power p. 17. For an expert committee which did search widely and follow these procedures, see the account in D. King, 'Creating a Funding Regime for Social Research in Britain: The Heyworth Committee on Social Studies', Minerva, 35 (1997), 1-26.
83. Collingridge and Reeve, Science Speaks to Power p. 17. For an expert committee which did search widely and follow these procedures, see the account in D. King, 'Creating a Funding Regime for Social Research in Britain: The Heyworth Committee on Social Studies', Minerva, 35 (1997), 1-26.
84. PRO, MH51/212, Minutes of the first meeting of the Brock Committee, 23 June 1932, p. 2.
85. PRO, MH51/216, Chairman's Memorandum, 19 October 1932, p. 1.
86. A point of context is important here. At this time, it was acceptable and not uncommon to acknowledge that the exact genetic cause of a condition was unknown, but to cite genealogical tables demonstrating that it was transmitted over generations within a family, suggesting that it was inherited.
87. PRO, MH51/216, Chairman's Memorandum, 19 October 1932, p. 2 (emphasis added).
88. PRO, MH51/216, Chairman's Memorandum, 19 October 1932, p. 3.
89. Brock Report, p. 55.
90. PRO MH51/228 31100, Note of the Proceedings of the 16th Meeting of the Committee, 20 March 1933, pp. 1-2.
91. Brock Report, p. 7.
92. Brock Report, p. 8.
93. Its genesis lies in late nineteenth-century characterizations of the urban poor: see G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1976), pp. 285-90; and J. Macnicol, 'In Pursuit of the Underclass', Journal of Social Policy, 16 (1987), 293-318.
94. Its genesis lies in late nineteenth-century characterizations of the urban poor: see G. Stedman Jones, Outcast London (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1976), pp. 285-90; and J. Macnicol, 'In Pursuit of the Underclass', Journal of Social Policy, 16 (1987), 293-318.
95. PRO, MH51/228 31100, Memorandum, 'The Social Problem Group', n.d.
96. PRO, MH51/228 31100, Memorandum, 'The Social Problem Group', n.d.
97. This interpretation was reproduced in the Eugenics Society's submission to the Brock Committee. See PRO, MH51/228 31100, Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to Mr L. G. Brock's Sterilization Committee, 1 March 1933, 31pp, p. 22.
98. PRO, MH51/228 31100, Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to Mr L. G. Brock's Sterilization Committee, 1 March 1933, 31pp, pp. 25-6.
99. PRO, MH51/217, Minutes of the 6th meeting of the Brock Committee, 14 November 1932, p. 3.
100. PRO, MH51/212, Minutes of the first meeting of the Brock Committee, 23 June 1932, pp. 6-7.
101. Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings, p. 208.
102. For the United States, see P. R. Reilly 'Involuntary Sterilization in the United States: A Surgical Solution', Quarterly Journal of Biology, 62 (1987), 153-70; and J. W. Trent Jr, Inventing the Feeble Mind (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
103. For the United States, see P. R. Reilly 'Involuntary Sterilization in the United States: A Surgical Solution', Quarterly Journal of Biology, 62 (1987), 153-70; and J. W. Trent Jr, Inventing the Feeble Mind (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
104. PRO, MH51/216, Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Brock Committee, 31 October 1932, p. 9.
105. PRO, MH51/210, Confidential, Chairman's Memorandum, pp. 8-9.
106. Eugenist arguments tended to belie their claim that the operation would be purely voluntary. Dr C. P. Blacker reported that the Eugenics Society was 'convinced that there are large numbers of people who do not want large families, especially those in the lower grades of society who cannot afford to bring up a number of children. The motives which will lead these people to undergo sterilisation is the desire to limit their families.' Subsequently questioned by the committee about applying sterilization to recipients of out-door relief, Blacker thought that 'if a man was naturally disinclined to work, pressure in such a case [to sterilise] would be justified' (PRO, MH51/228 31100, Proceedings of the 17th meeting of the Brock Committee, 3 April 1933, pp. 6 and 10, emphasis added).
107. One Devon witness argued that any consent given by a 'defective' would be meaningless: 'defectives are so open to suggestion that they would readily adopt the views of someone else and could be persuaded to submit to sterilisation or refuse consent to the operation by any Officer of the Institution whom they respected and trusted.' He added that, 'if defectives saw any possibility of securing freedom through sterilisation they would give consent without any thought for the nature and effect of the operation.' (PRO, MH51/226 31100, Evidence to the Committee on Sterilisation by Charles William Mayer, Superintendent of the Royal Western Counties Institution for the Mentally Defective, Starcross, Devon, p. 4.)
108. Brock Report, p. 20.
109. Brock Report, p. 21.
110. To be sure, the committee succeeded in locating those who argued that mental defect was caused by hereditary factors. Unsurprisingly, this view was endorsed by the Eugenics Society, whose submissions were, of course, taken very seriously. See PRO, MH51/228 31100, Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to Mr L. C. Brock's Sterilization Committee, 1 March 1933, 31pp, pp. 22, 25.
111. PRO, MH58/102, Statement of Evidence by William J. Elliott, Director of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruely to Children, 35pp, pp. 33-4.
112. PRO, MH51/217, Minutes of the 6th meeting of the Brock Committee, 14 November 1932, p. 5.
113. Brock Report, pp. 41-2.
114. Brock Report, p. 41.
115. PRO, MH51/234 31100. Haldane, FRS, was professor of genetics at University College, London. Minutes of the proceedings of the 23rd meeting of the Brock Committee, 27 June 1933, p. 1.
116. PRO, MH51/234 31100, Minutes of the proceedings of the 23rd meeting of the Brock Committee, 27 June 1933, p. 1. Haldane continued to oppose sterilization, writing in 1938 that 'I do not believe that our present knowledge of human heredity justified such steps' (J. B. S. Haldane, Heredity and Politics (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1938), p. 7).
117. PRO, MH51/234 31100, Minutes of the proceedings of the 23rd meeting of the Brock Committee, 27 June 1933, p. 1. Haldane continued to oppose sterilization, writing in 1938 that 'I do not believe that our present knowledge of human heredity justified such steps' (J. B. S. Haldane, Heredity and Politics (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1938), p. 7).
118. PRO MH51/225 31100, Proceedings of the 14th meeting of the Committee, 6 March 1933, p. 6, and 'Summary of the Evidence Given by Professor Lancelot Hogben'.
119. Richard Soloway calls Hogben the 'most devastating' and 'worrisome' critic faced by the eugenists (R. A. Soloway, Demography and Degeneration (Chapel Hill.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 196; on Hogben, see R. Dahrendorf, LSE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 254-66; and N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960 (London: Macmillan, 1982), pp. 146-53.
120. Richard Soloway calls Hogben the 'most devastating' and 'worrisome' critic faced by the eugenists (R. A. Soloway, Demography and Degeneration (Chapel Hill.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 196; on Hogben, see R. Dahrendorf, LSE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 254-66; and N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960 (London: Macmillan, 1982), pp. 146-53.
121. Richard Soloway calls Hogben the 'most devastating' and 'worrisome' critic faced by the eugenists (R. A. Soloway, Demography and Degeneration (Chapel Hill.: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 196; on Hogben, see R. Dahrendorf, LSE (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 254-66; and N. Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960 (London: Macmillan, 1982), pp. 146-53.
122. PRO, MH51/210 31100, Notes by Dr Crowley on Draft Report, p. 3 (emphasis added).
123. PRO, MH51/221, Brock in a letter to Mr E. H. Curtis, London Mental Hospitals Department, 2 December 1932.
124. PRO, MH51/210, Letter from Adams to Brock, 29 September 1933.
125. PRO, MH51/212, Minutes of the first meeting of the Brock Committee, 23 June 1932, p. 9.
126. See, for instance, Roger Williams's chapter in Lewis Roberts and Albert Weale, eds, Innovation and Environmental Risk (London: Belhaven, 1991).
127. PRO, MH51/216, Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Brock Committee, 31 October 1932, p. 6.
128. PRO, MH51/216, Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Brock Committee, 31 October 1932, p. 10.
129. PRO, MH51/216, Minutes of the 5th meeting of the Brock Committee, 31 October 1932, p. 10.
130. PRO, MH51/228 31100, 'Inheritance of Mental Defect', Professor R. Ruggles Gates FRS, 21pp, submission to the Brock Committee. He approvingly cited the Kallikaks and Jukes families: 'I have made no reference to the well-known studies of the Kallikaks, Jukes, Nams, Wins, Hill Folk, Zeros, Tribe of Ishmael and other groups of similar character, whose members through many generations have produced large numbers of paupers, prostitutes, feebleminded and criminals. While convincing as showing the inheritance of mental defect on a large scale through many generations, they have not usually been analysed in such a way as to throw light on the manner or law of the inheritance. In each the descendants, numbering thousands, have been traced back to one or a few individuals, whose sterilization would have prevented an enormous amount of crime, vice and unhappiness and would at the same time have enabled better stocks less burdened with taxation to multiply and fill their places in a happier and more efficient way', p. 20. This is a fulsome statement of the validity of imputing a hereditary source of feeble-mindedness and the potential beau monde of preventive procreation.
131. PRO, MH51/232 31100, Evidence given before Mr Brock's Committee on Behalf of the Eugenics Society, 3 April 1933, by C. J. Bond CMG, FRCS, p. 4.
132. PRO, MH51/232 31100, Evidence given before Mr Brock's Committee on Behalf of the Eugenics Society, 3 April 1933, by C. J. Bond CMG, FRCS, p. 14.
133. PRO, MH51/231 31100, Norah L. C. Hurle, Chairman Mental Deficiency Acts Committee, G. W. J. MacKay, Medical Superintendent and C. E. Newman, Secretary, 'Mental Deficiency Act 1913-1927, County of Somerset', 27 April 1933, p. 4.
134. PRO, MH51/225 31100, Evidence of Dr A. A. E. Newth, Senior Medical Officer, Nottingham Education Committee, pp. 22, 23.
135. PRO, MH51/224, Minutes of the 13th meeting of the Brock Committee, 20 February 1933, pp. 4-5.
136. PRO, MH51/224, Minutes of the 13th meeting of the Brock Committee, 20 February 1933, p. 7.
137. PRO, MH51/210 31100, Notes by Dr Crowley on Draft Report, p. 1 (emphasis in the original).
138. Brock Report, p. 25.
139. Brock Report, p. 25.
140. Brock Report, p. 39.
141. PRO, MH51/210, Confidential, Chairman's Memorandum, p. 2-3.
142. PRO, MH51/210, Confidential, Chairman's Memorandum, p. 4. This imprecision led Brock to reject compulsory sterilization; it would require 'a degree of certainty as to the results of the union of defectives which at present does not exist.' Yet if the scientific case for compulsory sterilization was weak, then surely it was equally so for voluntary, for sterilization of any sort gained its eugenist justification from the fact of heredity.
143. PRO, MH51/210, Confidential, Chairman's Memorandum, p. 5. In fact, Brock's enthusiasm for sterilization led him to propose, to his colleagues, its application in areas outside the committee's remit - 'notably certain forms of blindness' - on the grounds that restricting it to sufferers of mental illness gave the policy 'a quasi-penal character' (pp. 5-6).
144. PRO, MH51/228 31100, Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to Mr L. G. Brock's Sterilization Committee, 1 March 1933, 31pp, p. 26.
145. PRO, MH51/228 31100, Evidence submitted by the Eugenics Society to Mr L. G. Brock's Sterilization Committee, 1 March 1933, 31pp, p. 26.
146. PRO, MH58/104B, Minute, Ministry of Health, 25 January 1934.
147. PRO, MH58/104B, Letter from Young to James, 26 January 1934. To advance health professionals' support of sterilization, the Joint Committee on Voluntary Sterilization (composed of representatives from the Central Association for Mental Welfare, the Eugenics Society and the National Council for Mental Hygiene) was created to apply pressure for legislation. It drafted a Bill for voluntary sterilization (PRO, MH58/100, Letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Health, from the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the Mental Hospitals Association and the Joint Committee on Voluntary Sterilization, 3 April 1935, enclosing draft bill).
148. PRO, MH58/104B, Letter from Young to James, 26 January 1934. To advance health professionals' support of sterilization, the Joint Committee on Voluntary Sterilization (composed of representatives from the Central Association for Mental Welfare, the Eugenics Society and the National Council for Mental Hygiene) was created to apply pressure for legislation. It drafted a Bill for voluntary sterilization (PRO, MH58/100, Letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Health, from the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the Mental Hospitals Association and the Joint Committee on Voluntary Sterilization, 3 April 1935, enclosing draft bill).
149. Succeeded, as Minister of Health, in June 1935 by Sir Kingsley Wood.
150. These were: the Magistrates' Association, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the Association of County Medical Officers of Health, the National Association for the Feeble-minded, the Mental Hospital Matrons' Association, the National Association of Blind Workers, the National Council for Equal Citizenship, the National Council for Women, the Women Public Health Officers' Association, the Conservative Women's Reform Association, the Women's Co-operative Guild, the Women's National Liberal Federation, and other local organizations.
151. See PRO, MH58/100, Opening Statement of the Deputation to the Minister of Health, 23 May 1935, p. 6.
152. PRO, MH58/100, Notes for the Minister, 'Deputation on Voluntary Sterilisation', 17 May 1935, p. 4.
153. PRO, MH58/100, Notes for the Minister, 'Deputation on Voluntary Sterilisation', 17 May 1935, pp. 4-5.
154. PRO, MH58/100, Notes for the Minister, 'Deputation on Voluntary Sterilisation', 17 May 1935, p. 5.
155. PRO, MH58/100, Report of the meeting between the Minister of Health and deputation of associations, 23 May 1935, p. 2.
156. PRO, MH58/100, Report of the meeting between the Minister of Health and deputation of associations, 23 May 1935, p. 2.
157. PRO, MH58/10, Minute to Miss Sharp, 15 March 1935.
158. Hansard (Commons), 3 July 1934, col. 1825.
159. Hansard (Commons), 3 July 1934, cols. 1825, 1826.
160. The National Health Service (Family Planning) Amendment Act 1972 legalized voluntary vasectomies; this measure was unassociated with any eugenic ambitions, making the efforts of the eugenists in the 1930s all the more explicit.
161. Newspaper responses to the Brock Committee were mostly favourable or neutral, however, suggesting that Young's reservations were considerable. See report in PRO MH79/292.
162. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded (London: HMSO, Cmnd. 4215, 1908), Vol II.
163. Though in fact illegal sterilizations were not uncommon as evidence to the Committee indicated.
164. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign', pp. 431-2. Certain witnesses revealed such a bias. Professor Ruggles Gates expressed the view that 'when feeble-mindedness appears amongst the higher type of family, it is unusual for that child to reproduce. His parents will look after him and protect him for the rest of his life, but in the poorer classes of society the same type of person will marry and will have children who will carry on the taint' (PRO, MH51/228 31100, Proceedings of the 16th meeting of the Brock Committee, 20 March 1933, p. 3). See also Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 200-2.
165. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign', pp. 431-2. Certain witnesses revealed such a bias. Professor Ruggles Gates expressed the view that 'when feeble-mindedness appears amongst the higher type of family, it is unusual for that child to reproduce. His parents will look after him and protect him for the rest of his life, but in the poorer classes of society the same type of person will marry and will have children who will carry on the taint' (PRO, MH51/228 31100, Proceedings of the 16th meeting of the Brock Committee, 20 March 1933, p. 3). See also Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 200-2.
166. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign', pp. 431-2. Certain witnesses revealed such a bias. Professor Ruggles Gates expressed the view that 'when feeble-mindedness appears amongst the higher type of family, it is unusual for that child to reproduce. His parents will look after him and protect him for the rest of his life, but in the poorer classes of society the same type of person will marry and will have children who will carry on the taint' (PRO, MH51/228 31100, Proceedings of the 16th meeting of the Brock Committee, 20 March 1933, p. 3). See also Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 200-2.
167. The Catholic Church's opposition to sterilization was taken as further evidence of the backwardness of anti-eugenism. According to Mrs Hodson, in the United States, the implementation of sterilization programmes in western states, and in particular those in California, 'the most progressive part of the [American] union', contrasted with the dominance of a regressive Catholicism in certain eastern states (PRO, MH51/228 31100, Mrs C. B. S. Hodson, 'General Observations on the Position in the United States', 27 March 1933, prepared for the Brock Committee).
168. See, for example, PRO, MH58/103, letter from the Catholic Federationist, in Salford to the Minister of Health, 26 February 1929, which concluded that 'sterilisation is immoral, unnatural and inhuman.' The Catholic Church's concern was echoed by the Birmingham based Distributist League (whose president was G. K. Chesterton), which argued that eugenicist calls for an enquiry were confined to a 'comparatively small number of people' and did not emanate from popular demand. See PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to the Minister of Health, 5 March 1929; and PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to Chamberlain's successor, Arthur Greenwood, in the ensuing Labour government, September 1929.
169. See, for example, PRO, MH58/103, letter from the Catholic Federationist, in Salford to the Minister of Health, 26 February 1929, which concluded that 'sterilisation is immoral, unnatural and inhuman.' The Catholic Church's concern was echoed by the Birmingham based Distributist League (whose president was G. K. Chesterton), which argued that eugenicist calls for an enquiry were confined to a 'comparatively small number of people' and did not emanate from popular demand. See PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to the Minister of Health, 5 March 1929; and PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to Chamberlain's successor, Arthur Greenwood, in the ensuing Labour government, September 1929.
170. See, for example, PRO, MH58/103, letter from the Catholic Federationist, in Salford to the Minister of Health, 26 February 1929, which concluded that 'sterilisation is immoral, unnatural and inhuman.' The Catholic Church's concern was echoed by the Birmingham based Distributist League (whose president was G. K. Chesterton), which argued that eugenicist calls for an enquiry were confined to a 'comparatively small number of people' and did not emanate from popular demand. See PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to the Minister of Health, 5 March 1929; and PRO, MH58/103, Letter from the Distributist League to Chamberlain's successor, Arthur Greenwood, in the ensuing Labour government, September 1929.
171. Macnicol, 'The Voluntary Sterilization Campaign', p. 432. Catholics, as Macnicol argues, were only 6 per cent of the population but constituted a group whom ministers did not wish to offend.
172. See, for example PRO, MH58/103, Minute to Minister by Arthur Robinson, 14 January 1932. The public opinion problem did not dilute the deputation's enthusiasm, however, who maintained that in the seventeen months after Brock's report was promulgated, it had 'received a volume of public support sufficient to justify the Government in accepting the responsibility of introducing a Bill into Parliament.' See PRO, MH58/100, Opening Statement of the Deputation to the Minister of Health, 23 May 1935, p. 6.
173. See, for example PRO, MH58/103, Minute to Minister by Arthur Robinson, 14 January 1932. The public opinion problem did not dilute the deputation's enthusiasm, however, who maintained that in the seventeen months after Brock's report was promulgated, it had 'received a volume of public support sufficient to justify the Government in accepting the responsibility of introducing a Bill into Parliament.' See PRO, MH58/100, Opening Statement of the Deputation to the Minister of Health, 23 May 1935, p. 6.
174. Tredgold put it down to 17 per cent, Fisher to 5 per cent, and Mallet (President of the Eugenics Society) to 80 per cent (Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization', p. 159). At the same time, environmentalist arguments gained support (Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings, chap. 5; M. P. Thomson, 'The Problem of Mental Deficiency in England and Wales' (unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Oxford, 1992), p. 165).
175. Tredgold put it down to 17 per cent, Fisher to 5 per cent, and Mallet (President of the Eugenics Society) to 80 per cent (Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization', p. 159). At the same time, environmentalist arguments gained support (Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings, chap. 5; M. P. Thomson, 'The Problem of Mental Deficiency in England and Wales' (unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Oxford, 1992), p. 165).
176. Tredgold put it down to 17 per cent, Fisher to 5 per cent, and Mallet (President of the Eugenics Society) to 80 per cent (Macnicol, 'Eugenics and the Campaign for Voluntary Sterilization', p. 159). At the same time, environmentalist arguments gained support (Mazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings, chap. 5; M. P. Thomson, 'The Problem of Mental Deficiency in England and Wales' (unpublished doctoral dissertation: University of Oxford, 1992), p. 165).
177. As meticulously explained by Michael Burleigh in Death and Deliverance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Soloway reports that the Eugenics Society's secretary feared that 'Nazi policies might turn the British public against the modest, voluntary sterilisation proposals being evaluated by Laurence Brock's interdepartmental committee,' a concern reproduced in the pages of the Eugenics Review (Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 301-9, esp. p. 302). And see C. Webster, 'Introduction', in Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society, p. 9.
178. As meticulously explained by Michael Burleigh in Death and Deliverance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Soloway reports that the Eugenics Society's secretary feared that 'Nazi policies might turn the British public against the modest, voluntary sterilisation proposals being evaluated by Laurence Brock's interdepartmental committee,' a concern reproduced in the pages of the Eugenics Review (Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 301-9, esp. p. 302). And see C. Webster, 'Introduction', in Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society, p. 9.
179. As meticulously explained by Michael Burleigh in Death and Deliverance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Soloway reports that the Eugenics Society's secretary feared that 'Nazi policies might turn the British public against the modest, voluntary sterilisation proposals being evaluated by Laurence Brock's interdepartmental committee,' a concern reproduced in the pages of the Eugenics Review (Soloway, Demography and Degeneration, pp. 301-9, esp. p. 302). And see C. Webster, 'Introduction', in Webster, ed., Biology, Medicine and Society, p. 9.
180. 'We propose the recommendations in a prescribed form should be required from two doctors, one of whom should, if possible be the patient's family doctor and the other a doctor on a list to be approved by the Minister of Health.' (Brock Report, p. 43.) Ultimately, it was the Minister of Health who would have to approve each individual sterilization of a mental patient. On the problems of involving general practitioners in the decision, see PRO, MH51/210 31100, letter
181. 'We propose the recommendations in a prescribed form should be required from two doctors, one of whom should, if possible be the patient's family doctor and the other a doctor on a list to be approved by the Minister of Health.' (Brock Report, p. 43.) Ultimately, it was the Minister of Health who would have to approve each individual sterilization of a mental patient. On the problems of involving general practitioners in the decision, see PRO, MH51/210 31100, letter from Brock to E. J. Maude, Solicitor's Department, Ministry of Health, 16 October 1933, and Maude's reply, 30 October 1933.
182. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
183. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
184. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
185. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
186. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
187. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
188. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
189. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
190. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
191. For the international context, see, inter alia, M. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996); L. Graham, 'Science and Values: The Eugenics Movement in Germany and Russia in the 1920s', American Historical Review, 82 (1977), 1133-64; D. A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain 1865-1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981); R. N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); P. R. Reilly, The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the US (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); W. H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); G. R. Searle 'Eugenics and Politics in Britain in the 1930s', Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 159-69; and S. F. Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany', Osiris, 2nd Series, 3 (1987), 193-236. Nils Roll-Hansen observes, of Scandinavian experience, that the 'introduction of sterilization laws in the Nordic countries in the 1930s was carried by the ideology of reform eugenics. In public debates more mainline and partly racist views were still influential' (G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, 'Conclusion: Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context', in Broberg and Roll-Hansen, eds, Eugenics and the Welfare State, p. 270.
192. Peter Hall suggests that state autonomy approaches draw an excessively sharp dichotomy between the state and society and ignores the importance of intermediate interests - political parties, committees, certain interest groups - that stand at the interaction of state and society (P. A. Hall, 'Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain', Comparative Politics, 25 (1993), 275-96).
193. For related issues in the more general context of public financing of expert research, see D. King, 'The Politics of Social Research: Institutionalizing Public Funding Regimes in the United States and Britain', British Journal of Political Science, 28 (1998), 415-44.
194. Clearly, though there are limits to such revisionism. The values of the 1930s justified many practices which we would wish to condemn absolutely, and sterilization is, equally arguably, one of these.
195. See the recent revelations in Alberta, Canada ('Sterilized in Alberta', The Economist, 9 November 1996), or Gould's discussion of Carrie Buck, the subject of the US Supreme Court's 1927 case, Buck v. Bell which permitted sterilization (in S. J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1981), p. 336), or Edward Larson's investigation of sterilization legislation and practices in southern American states in the 1930s and 1940s (E. J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). For recent revelations about Sweden, where Social Democratic governments coerced over 60,000 women into being sterilized between 1935 and 1976, see 'Sweden sterilized thousands of "useless" citizens for decades', Washington Post, 29 August 1997; and 'Outcasts from Nordic super-race', The Observer, 24 August 1997.
196. See the recent revelations in Alberta, Canada ('Sterilized in Alberta', The Economist, 9 November 1996), or Gould's discussion of Carrie Buck, the subject of the US Supreme Court's 1927 case, Buck v. Bell which permitted sterilization (in S. J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1981), p. 336), or Edward Larson's investigation of sterilization legislation and practices in southern American states in the 1930s and 1940s (E. J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). For recent revelations about Sweden, where Social Democratic governments coerced over 60,000 women into being sterilized between 1935 and 1976, see 'Sweden sterilized thousands of "useless" citizens for decades', Washington Post, 29 August 1997; and 'Outcasts from Nordic super-race', The Observer, 24 August 1997.
197. See the recent revelations in Alberta, Canada ('Sterilized in Alberta', The Economist, 9 November 1996), or Gould's discussion of Carrie Buck, the subject of the US Supreme Court's 1927 case, Buck v. Bell which permitted sterilization (in S. J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1981), p. 336), or Edward Larson's investigation of sterilization legislation and practices in southern American states in the 1930s and 1940s (E. J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). For recent revelations about Sweden, where Social Democratic governments coerced over 60,000 women into being sterilized between 1935 and 1976, see 'Sweden sterilized thousands of "useless" citizens for decades', Washington Post, 29 August 1997; and 'Outcasts from Nordic super-race', The Observer, 24 August 1997.
198. See the recent revelations in Alberta, Canada ('Sterilized in Alberta', The Economist, 9 November 1996), or Gould's discussion of Carrie Buck, the subject of the US Supreme Court's 1927 case, Buck v. Bell which permitted sterilization (in S. J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1981), p. 336), or Edward Larson's investigation of sterilization legislation and practices in southern American states in the 1930s and 1940s (E. J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). For recent revelations about Sweden, where Social Democratic governments coerced over 60,000 women into being sterilized between 1935 and 1976, see 'Sweden sterilized thousands of "useless" citizens for decades', Washington Post, 29 August 1997; and 'Outcasts from Nordic super-race', The Observer, 24 August 1997.
199. See the recent revelations in Alberta, Canada ('Sterilized in Alberta', The Economist, 9 November 1996), or Gould's discussion of Carrie Buck, the subject of the US Supreme Court's 1927 case, Buck v. Bell which permitted sterilization (in S. J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books, 1981), p. 336), or Edward Larson's investigation of sterilization legislation and practices in southern American states in the 1930s and 1940s (E. J. Larson, Sex, Race, and Science (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). For recent revelations about Sweden, where Social Democratic governments coerced over 60,000 women into being sterilized between 1935 and 1976, see 'Sweden sterilized thousands of "useless" citizens for decades', Washington Post, 29 August 1997; and 'Outcasts from Nordic super-race', The Observer, 24 August 1997.