Genetic Health Court

The Hereditary Health Court (German: Erbgesundheitsgericht), also known as, the Genetic Health Court, were courts that decided whether people should be forcibly sterilized in Nazi Germany. This decision making method of using courts for hereditary health in Nazi Germany was created to implement the Nazi race policy aiming for racial hygiene.

The Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring in Nazi Germany was made into act on July 14 of 1933, but made active in January 1934. This law gave rise to the profuse making of the health courts. The Sterilization law permitted complete authority to forcibly sterilize any citizen, who in the opinion of court officials, suffered from genetic disorders - many of which were not actually genetic. When the court outcome was sterilization for the individual in question, the court ruling could be appealed to the Higher Hereditary Health Court (also known as Hereditary Health Supreme Court). Dr. Karl Astel was in charge of the Hereditary Health Supreme Court from 1934 to 1937. The Hereditary Health Courts were responsible for the sterilization of 400,000 persons in less than a decade of operation.

The Nazi authority assigned the nickname "model U.S." to America for playing a prominent role in constructing their policy on race in Germany. Eugenicists in the United States were aware and very pleased for influencing Nazi legislation. The German Sterilization Law was affected by the California sterilization law and constructed after the Model Eugenic Sterilization Law in a more moderate alteration.The Model Eugenic Sterilization Law required people who were mentally retarded, insane, criminal, epileptic, inebriated, diseased, blind, deaf, deformed, and economically vulnerable to be sterilized. On the other hand, The German law called for sterilization in cases of mental retardation, schizophrenia maniac-depressive insanity, hereditary epilepsy, hereditary blindness, deafness, malformation, and Huntington's chorea.

Sterilizing disables the sex organs of the individual, making it impossible to reproduce. Procreation became a privilege because only authorized individuals were allowed to produce offspring—their characteristics were considered specifically desirable. Despite that the sterilization in the United States was more limited than it was in Germany, German racial hygienists highlighted that sterilization practices in some areas of the United States were more extreme than those in Nazi Germany.

The International Federation of Eugenic Organization held a conference in the Netherlands in 1936. Although Germany had the largest amount of attendees, there were also representatives from the United States, Denmark, England, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Estonia, France, and the Netherlands. When applied eugenics were discussed, the Nazi race policies presented by the German racial hygienists once again dominated.

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