In re Clayton
| Decision Date | 11 February 1931 |
| Docket Number | 27562 |
| Citation | 234 N.W. 630,120 Neb. 680 |
| Parties | IN RE CLAYTON. FRANK CLAYTON, APPELLANT, v. BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF DEFECTIVES, APPELLEE |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Gage county: FREDERICK W MESSMORE, JUDGE. Affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Syllabus by the Court.
The provisions of chapter 163, Laws 1929, relating to the sterilization of a feeble-minded person as a condition prerequisite to his parole from a state institution constitute a valid legislative enactment.
The sterilization of feeble-minded persons, within the meaning of chapter 163, Laws 1929, may be accomplished by the operation of vasectomy in the case of a male person.
It is the duty of the examining board to diligently inquire into and to carefully review the status of each case of proposed sterilization to determine whether such individual shall be sterilized as a condition prerequisite to his release from a state institution for the feeble-minded.
It is within the police power of the state, and is not in derogation of the rights of any person, under the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution, to enact a law providing for the sterilization of feeble-minded persons as a condition prerequisite to their release from a state institution.
Additional Syllabus by Editorial Staff.
Statute for sterilization of feeble-minded persons as prerequisite to parole from state institution held valid as against claim subject-matter was not clearly expressed in title (Laws 1929, c. 163).
Appeal from District Court, Gage County; Messmore, Judge.
Proceeding by Frank Clayton to review an order of the Board of Examiners of Defectives directing that petitioner be sterilized. From a judgment of the district court affirming said order, petitioner appeals.
Affirmed.
McKillip & Barth, for appellant.
C. A. Sorensen, Attorney General, and Homer L. Kyle, contra.
Frank Clayton, an incompetent, is about 22 years of age, and since November 16, 1920, he has been an inmate of the Nebraska institution for the feeble-minded at Beatrice. This proceeding has been prosecuted in his behalf from a judgment of the district court for Gage county, wherein an order of the board of examiners of defectives was affirmed, directing that Clayton be sterilized, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 163, Laws 1929, now sections 83-1501 to 83-1510, Comp. St. 1929, as a condition prerequisite to his parole from the above named institution. Section 1, ch. 163, above cited, follows:
"Hereafter no feeble-minded or insane inmate or habitual criminal, physically capable of bearing or begetting offspring, shall be paroled or discharged from the institution for the feeble-minded or the hospitals for the insane, nor paroled from the penitentiary, reformatory, industrial home, industrial schools or other such state institutions, except as hereinafter provided, or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction."
Counsel for Clayton argue that the act is in derogation of the rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution, and they also contend that the act is in violation of section 9, art. I of the Bill of Rights of the Nebraska Constitution, wherein it is provided that no "cruel and unusual punishment" shall be inflicted on one convicted of a crime.
The trial court made this pointed observation in respect of the act in question and its applicability to the facts disclosed by the record, namely:
"The only part thereof that could or should be held constitutional would be the part relating to the sterilization of feeble-minded persons, such as the subject in this case, and the court interprets the operation of sterilization, as used in this act, to mean the use of that form of sterilization known as vasectomy in the case of a male person and the form of sterilization known as salpingectomy in the case of a female person."
From a report of the board of examiners, it appears that Clayton was born in April, 1909; that he has two brothers and two sisters, and that one sister and a brother are likewise inmates of the same institution for feeble-minded at Beatrice. The report also discloses that, while Clayton appears to be physically normal, his mentality is such that he is not capable of progressing beyond the third grade in school, and that his "intelligence quotient," at the time of the hearing before the board, was only 40 per cent., as compared to the average 90 per cent. or 110 per cent. of a normal person. It also appears that, while Clayton has been employed at various occupations while confined at the institution, his mentality is that of a child of six or seven years and that he is rated as a high grade imbecile.
The evidence of the examining physicians is that Clayton's feeble-minded condition is congenital, and not acquired, and that his offspring, if any there should be, would inherit about the same degree of mentality that is discovered in him. And from their evidence it appears that Clayton has himself reached his greatest capacity of mentality, and that, since his is an established case of hereditary feeble-mindedness, his condition would be transmitted in the germ plasm of his body to his offspring. In the opinion of the examining physicians, who compose the personnel of the board, the sterilization of Clayton is unquestionably advisable.
The operation of vasectomy in a male consists of rendering the individual...
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