Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sterilization documents can be shocking

"You wouldn't expect a moron to run a train,  or a feebleminded woman to teach school,"  begins a 1950 pamphlet from the Human Betterment League of North Carolina.  The brochure,  illustrated with Dick-and-Jane style drawings,  pitches the notion that it's a favor to all concerned to stop "feebleminded" people from having children.

That's among the many public documents to be found at the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims web site,  along with data about North Carolina's eugenic sterilization program,  information about how to verify whether you or loved ones were operated on as part of the program and a preliminary report from the task force created to advise the governor on possible compensation.

Reps.  Larry Womble and Earline Parmon have introduced a bill that would provide $20,000 each for living victims,  though Womble has said he thinks the payments should be higher.  That bill has yet to make it out of committee for a vote.

This summer,  the John Locke Foundation released a paper arguing for compensation as a means of reminding government not to interfere in the private lives of citizens.

North Carolina has been grappling with its history of ordering tubal ligations,  hysterectomies,  vasectomies and castrations on children and adults deemed unfit to reproduce since a 2002 series in the Winston-Salem Journal exposed the story.  In 2005, researcher Johanna Schoen,  who uncovered the records that led to that series,  published "Choice & Coercion,"  which provides even more details about eugenic sterilization,  birth control and abortion in North Carolina.

And if you're still looking for more,  the University of Vermont has summarized the eugenic sterilization movement in all states.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once Again I am ashamed to be a being of our species when I read or hear about these atrocities. Did NC not learn ANYTHING from Hitler's insanity???I am truly sorry for these individuals and the wrongs committed against them. I do think that compensation is due. I am not sure that $20,000 is enough but then again WHAT amount would be? When will government go back to reading and defending The Constitution of the United States? I am sick to my stomach.

Anonymous said...

This was not just in NC...it is just the case that hit the newswires in the last 6 months. This was actually a national program. Hitler used the American program as a model for his own. "The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little known, role in the American eugenics movement's campaign for ethnic cleansing." You can read the rest of this story here at History News Network...
http://hnn.us/articles/1796.html

Anonymous said...

Sterilization vs Abortion?

Arent these ignoramous's conveniently forgetting about their own crimes?
How many abortions have been performed since 1973 up to 9 months? 50 million? 100 million? Double that? Who knows.

And forget pre-1973 because there were millions of annual coat hanger back alley deadly bloody disfiguring illegal haphazard abortions ages before sterilization.
Many abortees died from infections including their unborns.

Zero females or unborn ever died from sterilization. Gee, amazing isnt it? Sterization actually saved lives of the born and unborn.

So who are/were the real killers?

Logic and facts always win.

Maybe the real killers need to thank those who sterilized them instead of whining and wanting free loot to make it all well.

Anonymous said...

First of all, Anonymous, ignoramus is not spelled 'ignoramous'. Secondly, forced sterilization or coerced sterilization ought to offend any freedom loving American, and any form of state sponsored eugenics program ought to scare the hell right out of all of us, especially senior citizens. Damn right fiscal compensation is in order- because it will make an impact and hopefully keep this travesty at bay for at least one generation. That way the generation responsible for these kinds of atrocities will pass into the presence of their Maker to give an account for their actions and inactions in peace. My generation and the survivors of Roe V. Wade etc. will be the ones who have to fight to take the freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness back from the Socialists.

Anonymous said...

At what point should society be required to pay for peoples choices? How many welfare babies should a person be able to have? Should a crack mother hace 5 crack babies at societies expence? Should a retarded person be allow to have a retarded baby at societies expence? Let them have all the babies they want but don!t make me pay for them! How about paying in advance or offering a reward for voluntary sterlation. It costs a lot more than 20,000 dollars to provide lifetime care for a retarded or crack baby.

Anonymous said...

Examine a return to involuntary sterilization for select groups rather than pay billions in govt funded abortions at PP or other agencies while keeping abortion legal. Pass laws to castrate all convicted rapists.

Its hypocrisy to outlaw safe legal abortion only to have them return to butchers to mutilate them killing fetuss while medical expenses to treat their injuries would be billions not to mention the added welfare expenses for more population.

Legal safe abortion costs a little up front but saves a ton in the long run. Sterilization would solve the national debt crisis.

Anonymous said...

Our vice president would support this initiative.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/biden-chinas-one-child-per-family-policy_n_934182.html

Anonymous said...

China has the right idea but had no choice. It was one child or starve.

What about voluntary sterilization for males or females at an early age? America has millions who technically would have been better off to have never been born as crackhead babies who end up with a life of crime and jail. Never too late to fix the problem.

Why not use the billions in education for something worthwhile like teaching students that having children or abortions is a detriment to their own lives and careers. Solve the problem up front with free sterilization.

Voluntary sterilization could be a great tool if used wisely that would benefit millions who should never be parents in the first place and save trillions to help reduce the deficit.

Anonymous said...

I think anyone on government assistance for an extended period that STILL has children should be forced off assistance or sterilized

Anonymous said...

It was a good start. Lets continue the program. Most crime is committed by the same circle of people. Mostly related.

I vote yes!

muebles pozuelo said...

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