Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States. Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont Presentation about "eugenic sterilizations" in comparative perspective at the 2012 Social Science History Association: 1, 2. American eugenics refers inter alia to compulsory sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals. Many of these individuals were sterilized because of a disability: they were mentally disabled or ill, or belonged to socially disadvantaged groups living on the margins of society. American eugenic laws and practices implemented in the first decades of the twentieth century influenced the much larger National Socialist compulsory sterilization program, which between 1934 and 1945 led to approximately 350,000 compulsory sterilizations and was a stepping stone to the Holocaust. This site provides such an overview.
Link to "Eugenics" and Nazi "Euthanasia" Crimes gateway page. The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics. September 2003 tags: Holocaust by Edwin Black Edwin Black is the author of IBM and the Holocaust and the just released War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race, from which the following article is drawn. Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a co-called "Master Race. " But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn't originate with Hitler. 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. Eugenics was the racist pseudoscience determined to wipe away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype. California was considered an epicenter of the American eugenics movement. How? Hitler studied American eugenics laws. Dr. Mr. Eom. Eugenics Are Alive and Well In the United States. Informed consent is a concept at the core of both liberal democracy and the ethical practice of medicine. That is just one reason why a new report that, between 2006 and 2010, at least 148 women were sterilized illegally in California prisons should deeply disturb us. The report found the inmates were given tubal ligations without the prison administrators bothering to get the case by case authorization for the procedures, required by law, from a state board.
The point of this requirement is to have state officials outside of the prison review whether a proposed sterilization is genuinely consensual. (At least one woman has complained that she was coerced by prison officials into having the procedure). Judging from the comments being made on even many liberal internet sites regarding this story, it seems a refresher course in one of the darker sides of American history is in order (A typical reaction: “So ridiculous making this procedure so difficult. Found In The Archives: America's Unsettling Early Eugenics Movement : The Picture Show. The shadow selves of American history often don't leave much of a photographic record, but sometimes there are just a few shards of proof and reminders of what has happened.
Eugenics, a dark offshoot of the science of genetics, was an early 20th century movement that sought to prevent social ills by seeing that those who caused them were never born. The movement produced an awful lot of books, tracts and pamphlets, but it didn't leave behind much in the way of photographs. Hide caption The winners of the "medium family class" of a "fitter families contest" pose at the 1927 Kansas Free Fair. The American Eugenics Society was founded as a direct result of the Second International Conference on Eugenics, held in New York in 1921.
Photos and caption information courtesy of the American Philosophical Society Hide caption Exhibits like this one, seen at an exposition in Philadelphia in 1926, were popular. American Philosophical Society In a way, this makes perfect sense. America's Deep, Dark Secret. One of the deep, dark secrets of America's past has finally come to light. Starting in the early 1900s, hundreds of thousands of American children were warehoused in institutions by state governments.
And the federal government did nothing to stop it. The justification? The kids had been labeled feeble-minded, and were put away in conditions that can only be described as unspeakable. Now, a new book, "The State Boys Rebellion," by Michael D'Antonio, reveals even more: A large proportion of the kids who were locked up were not retarded at all. The Fernald School is the oldest institution of its kind in the country.
The people who ran Fernald back in the bad, old days are no longer alive, but many of the victims still are -- victims like Fred Boyce, who was locked up there for 11 years. "We thought for a long time that we belonged there, that we were not part of the species. And that was precisely the idea. But author Michael D'Antonio says it wasn't just a movement. Regimentation? Eugenics in the United States. Winning family of a Fitter Family contest stand outside of the Eugenics Building (where contestants register) at the Kansas Free Fair, in Topeka, KS. Eugenics, the social movement claiming to improve the genetic features of human populations through selective breeding and sterilization,[1] based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish between superior and inferior elements of society,[2] played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States prior to its involvement in World War II.[3] Eugenics was practised in the United States many years before eugenics programs in Nazi Germany[4] and U.S. programs provided much of the inspiration for the latter.[5][6][7] Stefan Kühl has documented the consensus between Nazi race policies and those of eugenicists in other countries, including the United States, and points out that eugenicists understood Nazi policies and measures as the realization of their goals and demands.[5] History Early proponents Immigration restrictions.