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      Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization: 1907–2015

      Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics
      Annual Reviews

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          Abstract

          In England during the late nineteenth century, intellectuals, especially Francis Galton, called for a variety of eugenic policies aimed at ensuring the health of the human species. In the United States, members of the Progressive movement embraced eugenic ideas, especially immigration restriction and sterilization. Indiana enacted the first eugenic sterilization law in 1907, and the US Supreme Court upheld such laws in 1927. State programs targeted institutionalized, mentally disabled women. Beginning in the late 1930s, proponents rationalized involuntary sterilization as protecting vulnerable women from unwanted pregnancy. By World War II, programs in the United States had sterilized approximately 60,000 persons. After the horrific revelations concerning Nazi eugenics (German Hereditary Health Courts approved at least 400,000 sterilization operations in less than a decade), eugenic sterilization programs in the United States declined rapidly. Simplistic eugenic thinking has faded, but coerced sterilization remains widespread, especially in China and India. In many parts of the world, involuntary sterilization is still intermittently used against minority groups.

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          Most cited references18

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          Hereditary genius: An inquiry into its laws and consequences.

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            Inquiries into human faculty and its development.

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              STERILIZED in the Name of Public Health

              In exploring the history of involuntary sterilization in California, I connect the approximately 20,000 operations performed on patients in state institutions between 1909 and 1979 to the federally funded procedures carried out at a Los Angeles County hospital in the early 1970s. Highlighting the confluence of factors that facilitated widespread sterilization abuse in the early 1970s, I trace prosterilization arguments predicated on the protection of public health. This historical overview raises important questions about the legacy of eugenics in contemporary California and relates the past to recent developments in health care delivery and genetic screening.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics
                Annu. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet.
                Annual Reviews
                1527-8204
                1545-293X
                August 24 2015
                August 24 2015
                : 16
                : 1
                : 351-368
                Article
                10.1146/annurev-genom-090314-024930
                26322647
                70aa306f-b033-443c-ad32-639697cdfe1f
                © 2015
                History

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