HOW THEM?

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 6

HOW THEM?

TOJREAT : DOCTORS SAY THAT SURGICAL DESEXUAUSATION IS NOT \ ALWAYS fINAI i Tragedy Of A Man Of Position Who Has An Upright Mind And An Inherited Physical Taint Proposals to segregate dangerous sex degenerates have come i almost simultaneously from the British Medical Association's Conference at Auckland and from a meeting of laymen (the Chamber of Commerce) at Hamilton. The doctors evidently i consider that desexualisation is not final, and that "the only safeguard is permanent segregation." A farm colony seems to be the remedy uppermost m the minds of both meetings. ' (Included m the proceedings at Hamilton is an unlookedfor, and therefore very welcome, testimony that "Truth's" han-. 1 dling of things that other papers shun as "unsavory" is apprec iated. The president of the Hamilton branch of the Farmers' Union has induced the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce to authorise a campaign for establishing a half-way institution for moral perverts, some of whom may be curable. A doctor's statements about a person with inherited disability illuminates one of the several pathetic phases of the problem.

Among the matters discussed by the > doctors at the British Medical Association's Conference at Auckland was • that of the sexual pervert, whom we I have among us m far too great a prol portion, to the danger of our kiddies and the demoralisation of the com- ' munity. Dr. W. H. Parkes, who ! presided, said that they must consider • the question from the point of view I of its terrible menace to the children, and that any action on the part I of the Conference would be viewed • with considerable interest by social ■ welfare organisations, which looked 'to > medical men for a lead m the matter. Certain perversions of the sexual degenerates, said Dr. Kenneth Macken- . zie, were due to gross organic disease, i and for such cases the obvious remedy was to get at the disease. As for the rest, society could only be protected at the present time by the imprisonment of the offenders; but, judging by the reports of the one person sometimes being convicted on several occasions for sexual offences, this was only a temporary remedy. Perpetual segregation, then, it would seem, was the only sure and certain protection from a repetition of the offence. It was felt, however, that this would be too severe on those offenders who owed to heredity an uncontrollable perverted sexual instinct. The speaker went on to tell the Conference about a patient of his whose father was a lunatic when his son was born, and who had a brother who had actually been convicted for criminal assault. This patient had told the doctor that he had the greatest difficulty m restraining his perverted passions and preventing himself from assaulting little girls whom ho saw bathing on the beach near_ his home. In fact, man of position and responsible citizen that he was, he lived m daily terror of committing a sexual crime. In such cases as this, it was thought there should be an alternative to imprisonment, and, m fact, numerous grand juries had made representations m this matter. The doctor then went on to deal with the proposal to operate on sexual degenerates or perverts. A grave responsibility rested on the Conference ■ m this matter, he pointed out, for there was no doubt medical men were looked to for a lead. He believed that operation would lessen the menace of' the sexual pervert by prevent- , ing his reproduction of his type, but , he would limit these operations to the victims of insanity, epilepsy and prolonged sexual perversions. For such 1 he was definitely m favor of surgical sterilisation. Legislation to this end , had been m existence for years m some . of the States of America, and a large number of operations had been per--1 formed, but the history of the working of these laws indicated that public opinion was not yet behind them. As to guaranteeing that surgical operation would abolish all sexual potency and desire, and so render society safe from the pervert, this the doctor would not do, and he quoted cases of unimpaired sexual virility following operation, saying that one such case must make them pause m claiming that operation was the panacea for sexual crime. On the motion of the speaker, the Conference then carried tlie following resolution: — "That this Conference can make no recommendation for surgical de- • sexualisatlon In the treatment of the ! adult sexual pervert. The only safe- . guard for young children, m this mat- [ ter is the permanent segregation of the , offender, either m prison or m farm colonies. The Conference emphasises the importance of the sterilisation of the chronic mentally and morally unfit, that a future generation may benefit thereby."