The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1907-02-20
WILL FORCE THE BILL
DIR. OWENS ADAIR TO SECURE
PASSAGE OF MEASURE.
Secures Signature Of All North YaLi'
ma Physicians, Who Heartily
Endorse Her Ideas.

II may not be able to accomplish
all / would like at this session of the
legislatures of the states Of Oregon
and Washington in relation to the
'sterilizing BILL said Dr.. Owens
Adair Monday to Herald re-
porter, but you can rest assured
that l will be on hand two years
hence II am still In the land of the
living, and with a force favoring its
lassage that will be felt"
The doctor has been Very busy
since coming to North Yakima to
visit, in securing the endorsement OF
the local medical fraternity to the
measure which she has already had
introduced in the Oregon legislature,
and q similar bill which she will seek
to have brought UP at Olympia BY
Senator Reed. She has secured the
signature of all the doctors here
with the exception Of two. and also
had the endorsement Of several Of
the leading physicians Of Seattle.
The bill az proposed Is as follows:
A bill for an act providing for the
sterilization Of feeble-minded. cpl
leptic and insane persons. and prison
ers in the penitentiary.
Be it enacted by the people Of the
state Of Washington:
Section THAT all feeble-binded.
epileptic and insane persons, COM
mitted to any state institution, shall
be sterilized, and all convicts sent
enced to life imprisonment, or who
have previously served term of i'm
prisonment in any penitentiary, shall
be sterilized, except such as in the
judgment Of the physicians in charge
Of such institutions should be ex-
cepted.
Section 2.-It shall be the duty of
the physician in charge of the varl-
Gus state institutions to execute the
provisions of this act.
"This matter is being brought up
in this FORM" said DR.. Adair, sin or
der that men and women may think
over this, one Of the most serious
questions before the American peo-
pie. The idea is prom by a
few as terrible and 'inhuman,' but
l.. those who oppose the measure will
stop and do little reasoning and
rost themselves, I believe they will
arrive at the same conclusion that
hundreds of the leading physicians
of the land have, and that is thar
sterilization will solve the problem of
! perpetuating the insane and GRIM
inally inclined. The United States
expends over $500,000,000 year in
caring for these classes alone, and
the people have it to pay. In Wis
consin "a similar bill has been intro
duced and is being supported by the
board of control and all the super
intendents and wardens of peniten-
tiaries.
ut is my purpose the coming two
years to use every means for the dis
semination of information and arous-
ing the public conscience by meeting
and discussing the matter with he
women Of the two states, the clubs,
the preachers, the legal and medicll
! fraternities, and l believe that when
the legislatures again meet at their
respective capitals two years hence
an array of petitions will confront
those bodies that will command the
! attention of those bodies, and 1 be-
lieve secure for the two states a
law constructed upon the lines !
have outlined in, my bill. Then will
the asylums for insane and the peni.
tentiaries for the vicious become less
conspicuous throughout the land"