As the State of Israel defined citizenship rights for its Jewish population after independence in 1948, it also began to articulate the rights of those affected by disabilities of the mind—i.e., psychiatric, cognitive, and learning disabilities—by issuing, for example, the “Law for the Management of Institutes” (1952) and the “Law for the Treatment of the Mentally Ill” (1955). Due to haphazard state-building and insufficient funding, however, this process was slow and uneven. In the meantime, people with mental and cognitive disabilities often remained vulnerable to abuse and sexual violence in domestic and institutional spaces and suffered from a lack of proper care and accommodation. Operating on the assumption that disability of the mind could be transmitted from generation to generation, some medical professionals contemplated sterilization as a way to prevent the reproduction of mental disability in the children of affected parents, but the lingering trauma caused by the Holocaust and Nazi racial hygiene hindered their plan. This article examines a 1954 case involving a cognitively disabled woman who was brought to court for neglecting her children. Due to her delinquent parenting, she was slated to undergo sterilization, but her legal incompetence raised a host of ethical questions that tested the psychiatrists’ and judicial authorities’ assumptions about cognitive competence, civic fitness, and reproductive autonomy. By examining contemporary press reports of the legal proceedings, their larger context, and their consequences, this article shows how the woman remained hostage to male-dominated power structures that devalued her dual status as a mother and as a cognitively impaired citizen. While this case study shows how easily overridden were the liberties and protections of those affected by disabilities of the mind, it can also be viewed as a situation that impelled the Israeli public to contemplate the rights of the cognitively disabled, foreshadowing later movements aimed at expanding the boundaries of society to include members of many degrees of ability.

中文翻译：

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以色列建国初期的母性、智力缺陷和生育自主权被剥夺

以色列国在 1948 年独立后为其犹太人定义了公民权利，它也开始阐明那些受精神障碍（即精神障碍、认知障碍和学习障碍）影响的人的权利，例如通过发布《机构管理法》（1952 年）和《精神病患者治疗法》（1955 年）。然而，由于国家建设的随意性和资金不足，这一进程缓慢且不平衡。与此同时，患有精神和认知障碍的人往往仍然容易在家庭和机构空间中遭受虐待和性暴力，并且缺乏适当的护理和住宿。基于精神残疾可以代代相传的假设，一些医疗专业人员考虑将绝育作为防止受影响父母的孩子繁殖精神残疾的一种方法，但大屠杀和纳粹种族造成的挥之不去的创伤卫生状况阻碍了他们的计划。本文探讨了 1954 年发生的一起案件，该案件涉及一名患有认知障碍的妇女，她因忽视孩子而被送上法庭。由于她失职的养育方式，她原本要接受绝育手术，但她的法律无能引发了一系列伦理问题，考验着精神病学家和司法当局关于认知能力、公民健康和生殖自主权的假设。通过审视当代媒体对法律程序的报道、其更大的背景及其后果，本文展示了这位妇女如何仍然受制于男性主导的权力结构，这些权力结构贬低了她作为母亲和认知障碍公民的双重身份。虽然这个案例研究表明，受智力障碍影响的人的自由和保护是多么容易被剥夺，但它也可以被视为促使以色列公众思考认知障碍者权利的一种情况，预示着后来旨在扩大认知障碍者权利的运动。社会的界限包括许多能力程度的成员。