Smith v. Wayne Probate Judge

Willie Smith is 16 years of age. He was duly adjudged to be feeble-minded by the probate court of Wayne county, and is now confined in the State home at Lapeer. His father, with the consent of the mother, filed a petition under Act No. 285, Pub. Acts 1923, to have him sterilized. The proceedings resulted in an order by the court appointing a competent physician to treat the plaintiff by X-ray or by vasectomy, or by other treatment that may be least dangerous to life, in order to render him incapable of procreation. To secure a reversal of this order the plaintiff brings certiorari.

The purpose…