CHAPTER XI.
Tubo-ligature.
The fertility of the criminal a greater danger to society than his depradations.—Artificial sterility of women.—The menopause artificially induced.—Untoward results.—The physiology of the Fallopian tubes.—Their ligature procures permanent sterility.—No other results immediate or remote.—Some instances due to disease.—Defective women and the wives of defective men would welcome protection from unhealthy offspring.
There is a growing feeling that society must be protected, not so much against the criminal as against the fertility of the criminal, and no rational, practicable, acceptable method has as yet been devised.
The operations on men to induce sterility have been discussed and dismissed as unsatisfactory.
But analogous operations may be performed on women. And if women can be sterilized by surgical interference, whence comes the necessity of sterilizing both?
Oophorectomy, or removal of the ovaries is analogous to castration. It is an equally safe, though a slightly more severe and complicated operation.
It can be safely and painlessly performed, the mortality in uncomplicated cases being practically nil.