Amendment to Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny, 1935
From the Law amending the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny of 26 June 1935
Source : M. Burleigh & W. Wippermann, The Racial State. Germany 1933-1945, (Cambridge, 1991), pp.140-141.
The government of the Reich has decided upon the following law which hereby takes effect: Individual clauses The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny of 14 July 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt 1, p. 529) will be amended as follows: 1. In c. 9 sentence 1, instead of 'emergency period of one month', insert 'emergency period of fourteen days'. 2. (i) If, by virtue of the law, a Hereditary Health Court has decided upon the sterilisation of a woman who is pregnant at the time the operation is carried out, the pregnancy may be terminated, with the consent of the woman concerned, unless the fetus is already capable of independent life, or unless the termination of the pregnancy entails a serious danger to either the life or health of the woman herself. (ii) The foetus is to be regarded as being incapable of independent life if the termination takes place before the completion of the sixth month of pregnancy. (3) In c. 11 paragraph 1, sentences 1 and 3 and paragraph 2 the words 'and termination of pregnancy' are to be inserted after the word 'sterilisation'. (4) Clause 14 is to be interpreted as follows: (i) Sterilisation, or the termination of a pregnancy, as well as the removal of the gonads, which are not in accordance with the stipulations of the law, are authorised and to be carried out only if a physician has decided in accordance with the dictates of medical skill that this would forestall a grave threat to the life or health of the person concerned, and only with that person's consent. (ii) Removal of the gonads of a man can be performed only with his consent, and only if this has been recommended by the medical officers of the courts or administrative authorities as being necessary to free him from a degenerate sexual drive which might result in further infringements of paragraphs 175 to 178, 183, 223 to 226 of the Penal Code. Recommendations for castration in criminal trials or custody proceedings remain unaffected.
