Learning from history — experience of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century

In Czechoslovakia, as in many other Central European countries, the introduction of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses, or GzVeN) was largely the concern of medical and legal experts. Although as late as Autumn 1932 the authorities observed that “… we are not aware of the question of sterilization having been considered by the Czechoslovak Parliament, nor of it having been the subject of administrative investigations.” A few months after the introduction of GzVeN, however, the view that it would “be… prudent to pay greater attention to these issues” had already begun to appear in professional medical publications.