Harry Clay Sharp (1870–1940) was an American medical doctor and eugenicist. While working as a physician at an Indiana state prison around the turn of the 20th century, Sharp performed some of the first

vasectomies Vasectomy, or vasoligation, is an elective surgical procedure for male sterilization or permanent contraception. During the procedure, the male vasa deferentia are cut and tied or sealed so as to prevent sperm from entering into the urethra and ...

for the purposes of sterilization, and helped popularize the procedure as an alternative to

castration Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmaceut ...

. Sharp was instrumental in the creation of Indiana's 1907 law mandating the sterilization of "confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists"; this was the first compulsory sterilization law in the United States, and would serve as a model for similar statutes adopted by other states.

Biography

Early life

Sharp was born on December 18, 1870, in Charlestown, Indiana to parents Margaret and James Sharp. He was the first of nine children, two of whom died as infants. He began studying medicine at Ohio State Medical School, completing his studies at the University of Louisville in Kentucky in 1893.

Career overview

In 1895, he began working as a physician at the

Indiana Reformatory The Pendleton Correctional Facility, formerly known as the Indiana Reformatory, is a state prison located in Fall Creek Township, Madison County, near Pendleton and about northeast of Indianapolis. Established in 1923, it was built to replace ...

in Pendleton, Indiana, a state prison which housed convicted criminals and mental patients. Sharp took an interest in policy, and was eventually named as State Hospital Superintendent for Indiana and served on the board of trustees of state institutions. In 1910, Sharp opened a hospital in West Baden, Indiana with another doctor, C. W. Dowden. During World War I, Sharp was the head of the US Army Medical Corp's surgical operating unit in France. After the war, Sharp briefly operated a private practice in Indianapolis. He then worked as a surgeon of the United States Public Health Service. Finally, he worked for nine years as the chief medical officer of the United States Veterans Administration Hospital in Lyons, New Jersey.

Personal life

Sharp was married in 1925 to Lillian Marie Sharp. The two had a son, James C. Sharp. Sharp died at the Veterans Administration Hospital on October 31, 1940, after a brief illness.

Sterilization and eugenic advocacy

As a physician at the Indiana Reformatory, Sharp performed some of the first

in the United States, and helped popularize the practice as a eugenic measure to prevent "degenerate" individuals from producing "more of their kind". The vasectomy was developed in Sweden and England in 1890 as an experimental treatment for prostatitis (an enlarged prostate gland). The idea of using the procedure for the purposes of sterilization, particularly of degenerate individuals, was conceived by the Chicago physician Albert Ochsner, who published his ideas in an article in the

Journal of the American Medical Association ''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of bio ...

in 1899, where Sharp learned of them. Ochsner and Sharp conceived of vasectomy as a more humane alternative to

, since it would preserve their sexual functioning. Sharp performed his first vasectomy on 11 October 1899 on a nineteen-year-old inmate, Clawson, who was said to suffer from excessive masturbation. Sharp reported that the procedure cured the young man of his masturbation habit, as well as conferring a number of other health benefits such as weight gain and improved mood. Sharp asked Clawson to recruit more inmates into having the procedure done. Over time, Sharp shifted his emphasis away from the therapeutic benefits of vasectomy in treating sexual deviancy, and came to instead emphasise its eugenic purpose. By 1909, Sharp claimed, in his pamphlet ''Vasectomy'', to have performed 456 vasectomies. Beginning in 1901, Sharp urged the governor to pass a compulsory sterilization law. By 1907, he succeeded in convincing governor J. Frank Hanly to pass the first compulsory sterilization law in the United States. In the following years, several other states would pass similar laws, some consulting with Sharp.

Harry Laughlin Harry Hamilton Laughlin (March 11, 1880 – January 26, 1943) was an American educator and eugenicist. He served as the superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closure in 1939, and was among the most a ...

would go on to replace Sharp as the principal advocate for sterilization laws in the US. Indiana's sterilization law was eventually overturned by state courts in 1919 (at which point Sharp had already ceased his advocacy for sterilization). Sharp never renounced his support of eugenic sterilization.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , work=New York Times , title=Dr. Harry C. Sharp, a Medical Leader , date=1 November 1940 , url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/11/01/archives/dr-harry-c-sharp-a-medical-leader-chief-at-veterans-hospital-in.html {{cite web , work=Embryo Project Encyclopedia , title=Harry Clay Sharp (1870-1940) , last=Nichols, first=Cole , date=13 June 2022 , url=https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/harry-clay-sharp-1870-1940 {{cite book , title=A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era , editor-last=Lombardo, editor-first=Paul A. , publisher=Indiana University Press, year=2011 , isbn=0253222699 , chapter=The Hoosier Connection: Compulsory Sterilization as Moral Hygiene , pages=18–23 , last=Carlson, first=Elof Axel {{cite journal , work=Indiana Magazine of History , title="We Cannot Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear": Eugenics in the Hoosier Heartland , last=Stern, first=Alexandra Minna , year=2007, volume=103, number=1 , publisher=Indiana University Press , url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27792776 1870 births 1940 deaths American eugenicists American surgeons People from Charlestown, Indiana