TWO DOCTORS CHARGED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 222, 19 September 1936, Page 9

TWO DOCTORS CHARGED

THE CASE DISMISSED SAbF FRANCISCO, Aug. 19. Superior Judge Tuttle dismissed charges of criminal mayhem against two physicians for the alleged sterilisation of Ann Hewitt. He held that they acted in good faith on the instructions of the mother. He also held that evil intent by the mother was not proved. A civil damages suit by the daughter against her mother is still pending. A San Francisco cable, dated January 6, stated that, claiming that she was denied the right of motherhood by an illegal sterilisation operation, .Miss- Ann Cooper Hewitt, 21-vear-old heiress, had filed an amazing damages suit for 500,000 dollars against her mother, Mrs Maryond Hewitt McCarter, an international society woman. Claimant’s father, Peter Cooper Hewitt, the famous inventor, died in 1921 leaving estate valued in excess of 10,000,000 dollars, two-thirds of which would revert to the wife if the daughter died without issue. The daughter alleged that, under the pretence of having her appendix removed, her mother engaged two prominent physicians to perform a sterilisation operation for the sole purpose of diverting the major portion of the estate to herself. The physicians in question admitted that, they performed the operation, but insisted that they did so because the girl was feeble-minded and the mother felt that the bearing of children would be dangerous to her health and morals. This claim was denied by the girl’s attorney, who charged that the mother, despite her large income, denied the child even the most commonplace necessities and luxuries while squandering large sums herself on luxurious living and gambling, and that her failure to give the child adequate education rather than mental incompetence was responsible for her undeveloped mentality. On her father's side Miss Hewitt is a descendant of a famous American family. Her great grandfather. Peter Cooper, the industrialist, was known as “America’s first millionaire” and founded the Cooper Union College, New York.