Image 1237 570&ACTS OF ASSEMBLY&[VA. A copy of the said petition and notice shall also be served upon the legal guardian or committee of said inmate if such guardian or committee be known to the said superintendent, and if there be no such guardian or committee or none such be known to the said superintendent, then the said superintendent shall apply to the circuit court of the county or city in which his said institution is situated, or to the judge thereof in vacation, who by a proper order entered in the common law order book of the said court shall appoint some suitable person to act as guardian of the said inmate during and for the purposes of proceedings under this act, to defend the rights and interests of the said inmate, and the guardian so appointed shall be paid by the said institution a fee not exceeding twenty-five dollars as may be determined by the judge of the said court for his services under said appointment and such guardian shall be served likewise with a copy of the aforesaid petition and notice. Such guardian may be removed or discharged at any time by the said court or the judge thereof in vacation and a new guardian appointed and substituted in his place. If the said inmate be an infant having a living parent or parents whose names and addresses are known to the said superintendent, they or either of them as the case may be shall be served likewise with a copy of the said petition and notice. After the notice required by this act shall have been so given, the said special board at the time and place named therein, with such reasonable continuances from time to time and from place to place as the said special board may determine, shall proceed to hear and consider the said petition and the evidence offered in support of and against the same, provided that the said special board shall see to it that the said inmate shall have opportunity and leave to attend the said hearings in person if desired by him or if requested by his committee, guardian or parent served with the notice and petition aforesaid. The said special board may receive and consider as evidence at the said hearing the commitment papers and other records of the said inmate with or in any of the aforesaid named institutions as certified by the superintendent or superintendents thereof, together with such other legal evidence as may be offered by any party to the proceedings. Any member of the said special board shall have power to administer oaths to any witnesses at such hearing. Depositions may be taken by any party after due notice and read in evidence if otherwise pertinent. The said special board shall preserve and keep all record evidence offered at such hearings and shall have reduced to writing in duplicate all oral evidence so heard to be kept with its records. Any party to the said proceedings shall have the right to be represented by counsel at such hearings. The said special board may deny the prayer of the said petition or if the said special board shall find that the said inmate is insane, idiotic, imbecile, feeble-minded or epileptic, and by the laws of heredity is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring likewise afflicted, that the said inmate may be sexually sterilized without detriment to his or her general health, and that the welfare of the inmate and of society will be promoted by such sterilization, the said special board may order the said superintendent to perform or have performed by [end]