The Reproductive Rights of the Developmentally Disabled Essay

In Pages 11 and 12 in Laura Hildebrand's book Unbroken she talks about eugenics in the way that America was infatuated with eugenics. Eugenics promised strengthening of the human race by taking out people that were unfit. One of the tools of eugenics was sterilization which were procedures that rendered people unable to reproduce . when Louie the main character of Laura's book, was around his teenage years the state in which he lived California, Was overwhelmed with eugenics and ended up sterilizing around 20,000 people. As you can see why Louie, a troubled teenager, who never really was the type to make the honor roll, had a minority background, and was a notorious troublemaker may have had a reason to fear his life. Once he realized what he was risking he

In 1817, the American School for Deaf was founded in Hartford Connecticut. This was the first school for disabled children in the Western Hemisphere. Although this was not the beginning of the Disability Rights Movement, it was a start to society, making it possible for people to realize that there were those with disabilities out there in the world and something had to be done. The Disability Rights Movement fought for equal access, opportunity, consideration, and basic human respect along with dignity for those born blind, deaf, or anyone with other forms of physical or mental disability. The purpose of social movements is to provide social change regarding a specific issue in which a particular group of

The idea of eugenics made it possible for involuntary sterilization. In order to improve the human race, it meant regulating reproduction. 1907 Indiana passed to sterilize the mentally insane and inmates. Their plan was to eliminate “defective” genes. By 1960 63,000 people were involuntary

Yes, I do believe as Americans, we should organize for reproductive justice rather than just settling on abortion rights, birth control and reproductive rights. The reason I believe we should just settle for reproductive justice because, it’s helpful for women who have suffered greatly. It is dangerous for us if we don’t let women think for themselves. For example, women who don’t receive a good quality of education will never be able to have a bright future for themselves and their children.

In the state of Kansas between 1913 and 1961, Kansas practiced forced sterilization on mentally unstable women.” In addition to laws regarding sterilization, several marriage restriction bills were proposed in Kansas as part of the eugenics movement. Although they were never enacted as state law, marriage bills were proposed in 1915, 1917, and 1927, demonstrating the popularity of eugenic ideals.” (University of Vermont…Kansas). Dr. F. Hoyt Pilcher performed 150 sterilization in the Kansas State Home of the Feebleminded. Between the years 1913 and 1916 there were 1,274 women sterilized in Kansas. In the year 1921, sterilization in Kansas was at its all-time lowest. Between the years 1950 and 1963, sterilization in Kansas was at its peak. It is

Bell, and then traces the development of state-ordered coerced sterilization. She then moves on to define and critique the arguments made by Murray and Herrnstein in their book The Bell Curve. The book she discusses posits that there is a link between race and intelligence, and goes even further to give recommendations on policies that should be implemented to keep intelligence from declining. She also connects eugenic sterilization and the propositions in The Bell Curve are to the topic of responsible reproduction. The article concludes by Miller showing that the arguments made in The Bell Curve are an example of negative

The United States and Nazi Germany, an unlikely pair. The disparity of values and beliefs of the two has set them as polar opposites in many people’s minds. However, when Eugenics and the 1927 Supreme Court come to mind the distance between the two seem to diminish. Yes, today’s topic is the infamous Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell; a 1927 case which upheld a Virginia statute that permitted the compulsory sterilization Carrie Buck and other intellectually disabled individuals for the purpose of improving the genepool . This shocking 8-1 ruling is no doubt one of the Supreme Court’s greatest errors as it failed to acknowledge that the statute in question aside from being immoral and cruel, was a clear violation

The first topic of medical crimes committed by the Americans that will be addressed is Eugenics. In America, it is important to note the concept of Eugenics had risen even before the Nazis in World War II, when Germans sterilized the mentally disabled to purify the German race. It was prevalent in America even before that. In 1890, Dr. F Hoyt Pilcher surgically sterilized fifty-eight children at the Institution for Feebleminded Children in Kansas. Dr. Hoyt and other physicians linked their mental disabilities to masturbation, and had hoped that surgically removing their

Sterilization "on eugenic grounds" (Lombardo 1) was not legalized until 1907 in Indiana, but doctors across the nation practiced the procedure illegally before even then. Generally, the patient didn't know about the sterilization until after the act was done, at which point they were informed of their "feeblemindedness" or other social disorder. Within 17 years of the law being instated, a recorded 3000 people were sterilized, and thousands more suspected off the record. The range of reasons for being sterilized was infinite, ranging from genuine mental disorders such as schizophrenia, to things as pointless as "excessive masturbation" (Selden

The disorder was identified by Dr. Andreas Rett, an Austrian physician who first described it in a journal article in 1966 after he noticed two girls in his waiting room exhibiting identical hand mannerisms (Perry, 1991). He subsequently identified 20 other girls with mental retardation who exhibited similar hand movements and shared a number of other features (Kerr & Stephenson, 1985).  It was not until after a second article about the disorder, published in 1983 by Swedish researcher Dr. Bengt Hagberg, that the disorder was generally recognized (Hagberg, 1983).

Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America by Leslie J. Reagan reveals the danger and worry expecting mothers encountered when faced with German measles. While no one was immune from the disease, pregnant women were at high risk, as the disease was particularly harmful to their unborn children. Reagan demonstrates that women of all classes were at the heart of the discussion, and these same women shaped the nature of the movement due to their gender.

Mentally disabled people in the 1930 's did not have the same treatment, which they are afforded today. Mentally disabled people during this era had the tendency to be placed into mental wards--at an alarming number. Doctors during this time did not have the understanding of mental disabilities that they do today. Many hospitals were overcrowded given doctors would tend to commit the mentally disabled person (given their inability to properly treat them).

Under this law, no recorded sterilizations occurred. In 1929, a modified eugenics law was adopted. Under this law, 49 people were sterilized under the authority of the administration of the institutions. The supreme court ruled this law unconstitutional in 1933 citing the absence of a public hearing notice or standards for appeal. The law was modified and also called for the creation of a North Carolina Eugenics Board. It consisted of three state officials, one representative of a mental health institution and one representative of the State Hospital in Raleigh. The board’s duties were to “review all cases involving the sterilization of mentally diseased, feeble-minded, or epileptic patients, inmates, or non-institutionalized individuals” (North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources). Over the next forty-one years, more than 7,500 sterilizations were carried out under this law. The state ceased this process in 1974 and the Eugenics Commission was subsequently abolished in 1977 ("Eugenics Board of North Carolina", 2017).

Skeels and Dye selected thirteen children, from an orphanage, who were so mentally slow that nobody would adopt them. They placed these infants in the care of women living in an institution for mentally retarded women. These women showered the babies with attention and enjoyed taking care of their every need. The researchers also left a control group of infants at the orphanage. Their findings were fascinating. The children who were placed in the care of the wards at the institution ended up gained IQ points while the children at the orphanage, who were somewhat higher in intelligence than the other thirteen, actually lost IQ

Women’s reproductive rights are a global issue in today’s world. Women have to fight to have the right to regulate their own bodies and reproductive choices, although in some countries their voices are ignored. Abortion, sterilization, contraceptives, and family planning services all encompass this global issue of women’s reproductive rights.