Talk:Eugenics and sterilization

Here is one of the granddaddy's of data on this topic: Archive on the American Eugenics Movement. Haven't myself seen a similar site for the British and German (etc) movements, their role in Nazi policies, and the post-War aftermath. David Hoffman 21:11, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

Thanks, David. Please feel free to be a co-author here, one of many-I hope. You may have noticed that I have been doing library research on a slew of human reproduction articles, in ths case- while searching for articles on vasectomy I came across some resources in the peer reviewed medical literature, and so I thought I would use them bystarting this article. I need to finish Sterilization (surgical) at least get it into some reasonable form, and that means writing about vasectomy and fallopian tube "tying" at a minimum. So, I am likely to contribute to this article with just the sources that I come across in research that -for now. When I can, I will take a look at those sites you suggest above. Rather an overwhelmingly mean and depressing topic, so I am going to have to do it in limited doses. Best, Nancy Sculerati 21:20, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

References

I cannot resist listing these references from the Journal of the Amercan Medical Society and similarly "responsible" publications from a different era. May we hope that we ourselves are not blind to the evil that can be carried out by ourselves, today,, even with good intentions.Nancy Sculerati 21:42, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

• Belfield WT. Race suicide for social parasites. JAMA 1908;50 55 6

• Ochsner AJ. Surgical treatment of habitual criminals. JAMA 1899;33 867 8

• Lydston GF. Sex mutilations in social therapeutics. NY Med 1912;95 677 85

• Sharp HC. Vasectomy as a means of preventing procreation in defectives. JAMA 1909;53 1897 902

• Popenoe P. The progress of eugenic sterilization. J Hered 1934;25 19 26

additional references

Bachrach S. In the name of public health--Nazi racial hygiene. [Historical Article. Journal Article] New England Journal of Medicine. 351(5):417-20, 2004 Jul 29. UI: 15282346 Author points out that 2 million men lost in WW I, added fuel to the idea that the people could be dying ut to the same kind sof concerns about weakening the strain that was going on in USA. In terms of the medical profession, "Some physicians and biologists who supported eugenics had to accommodate themselves to Nazism's rabid anti-Semitism. But in return for accepting the persecution of Jews as a source of biologic degeneration, many in the medical community welcomed the new emphasis on biology and heredity, increased research funding, and new career opportunities - including openings created by the purge of Jews and leftists from the medical and public health fields."..."Senior, influential members of the first generation of racial hygienists collaborated with the Nazi regime. Ernst Rudin, director of the Munich psychiatric institute and internationally known for his work using genealogical data banks to study the prognosis of psychiatric illnesses, helped to draft the regime's 1933 compulsory sterilization law. Eugen Fischer, the medically trained director of the Berlin eugenics institute, and Otmar von Verschuer, a geneticist known for his research on twins (see Figure 1) and the mentor of Dr. Josef Mengele (who later became notorious for research on twins conducted at Auschwitz-Birkenau), served as medical judges on new Hereditary Health Courts. They and hundreds of other medical and psychiatric specialists allowed the courts to present evidence supporting the state's case for sterilization, such as family genealogies tracking purported inherited taints and intelligence tests containing education-based questions."