-Caveat Lector- http://www.newsfrombabylon.com/article.php?sid=2580
Oregon governor apologizes to thousands sterilized Date: Tuesday, December 03 @ 12:10:12 EST Topic: Civil Rights and Human Rights Reuters Newswire [UK] Dec. 2, 2002 06:22 PM SALEM, Ore. - Oregon's governor, John Kitzhaber, apologized on Monday to more than 2,600 people forcibly sterilized during a 60-year state campaign to keep criminals and those deemed mentally or physically disabled from reproducing. One of 33 U.S. states to legalize eugenic sterilization, Oregon becomes the second to formally admit it was a mistake, after Virginia apologized last May. ''The time has come to apologize for the misdeeds that resulted from widespread misconceptions, ignorance and bigotry,'' Kitzhaber told reporters as he declared Dec. 10 ''Human Rights Day'' in Oregon. Various states sterilized more than 60,000 Americans, emboldened by a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the practice, which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes likened to vaccination, writing: ''Three generations of imbeciles are enough.'' Oregon's Board of Eugenics survived for six decades after its birth in 1923, overseeing castration, tubal ligation and hysterectomies of patients at state institutions, some denied release until they agreed to be sterilized. The law called for operations on people labeled ''feeble-minded, insane, epileptic, habitual criminals, moral degenerates and sexual perverts'' and those likely to become a menace to society. The victims included homosexuals and reportedly more than 100 teenage girls at a state reform school, some simply for misbehaving. For Velma Haynes, placed in a crowded state facility at age 2 when her parents decided they could only afford to keep her twin, the apology brought some relief from sterilization to which she reluctantly submitted to gain her release at age 18. VICTIMS SPEAK OUT ''I'm glad that they recognize it, but it was the wrong thing to do in the first place,'' Haynes told Reuters. Now in her late 60s, Haynes said she finds working with elderly hospital patients helps her cope with her own feelings of abandonment. Another victim, Ruth Morris, spent seven years at a juvenile work farm which required sterilization before she could be admitted. Her father placed her there when her mother died. ''My Dad and I had to sign a paper that I didn't understand until afterwards,'' Morris said. ''I felt mad after I found out after I had my operation.'' The apology comes after lobbying from advocates for the mentally ill, joined by gay and lesbian groups which hailed the move. ''The people targeted were predominantly gay men and they were classed with other criminals, convicted of crimes involving moral degeneracy, which meant that they were considered as apart of the same category as rapists, child molesters and other sexual predators,'' said Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. The theory of eugenics is credited to eighteenth century British scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin who drew on Darwin's study ''The Origin of Species,'' which coined the term ''survival of the fittest.'' Instead of asking which genes would survive, Galton pondered which genes should survive to reproduce, and whether civilization had halted human evolutionary improvements by allowing people with perceived deficiencies to reproduce. The theory was used to justify various forms of institutionalized racism and anti-immigrant actions in the United States, as well as bans on racially mixed marriages and marriages between first cousins. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1202POLITICS-LIFE-EUGENICS-DC.html This article comes from News From Babylon http://www.newsfrombabylon.com The URL for this story is: http://www.newsfrombabylon.com/article.php?sid=2580 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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