A moral emergency and a medical problem: negotiating the control of venereal disease--the Saskatchewan Venereal Disease Protection Act, 1946.

Abstract

The author examines Saskatchewan legislation that regulated venereal disease. Although venereal disease legislation was introduced in Saskatchewan in 1919, the centrepiece of this article is The Venereal Disease Prevention Act, 1946. In an attempt to understand the nuances of and underlying rationale for these laws, the author situates the legislation within its social context. The author demonstrates that the trends and contradictions apparent in society's approach to the regulation of venereal disease were reflected in the legislation. The concept of a continuum is used to illustrate the coexistence of two approaches to the control of venereal disease. On one side of the continuum, venereal disease was a moral problem and a taboo subject. Force was the key to controlling venereal disease; involuntary examinations and intrusions into people's personal lives were the solution. On the other side of the continuum, venereal disease was a medical problem. If approached rationally and openly, control of venereal disease was possible; through education and social acceptance of venereal disease as just another illness, people would voluntarily come forward for treatment. The approaches represented at the extreme ends of the continuum did not exist in isolation; these views existed simultaneously, producing contradictory and colourful rhetoric.