The American eugenics movement after World War II (part 1 of 3)

[xchrom]

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-american-eugenics-movement-after-world-war-ii-part-1-of-3/Content?oid=2468789

Dr. Clarence Gamble never had to work a day in his life, wrote an appalling poem suggesting that "lucky morons" in mental institutions welcomed involuntary sterilization, and was a lifelong promoter of eugenics—with five children.

Gamble was a researcher at Harvard Medical School, heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune and a leader in the movement to launch a second wave of eugenic sterilization after World War II.

Many people found Gamble intolerable, and even family members agreed he could be cold and aloof. Yet a longtime fieldworker recalled that "he showed determination and ruthlessness but had goodness exuding from every pore," and Gamble dreamed of making scientific discoveries—then turning the patent over to the public so drug companies wouldn't reap excessive profits. He helped launch and fund the first public birth control clinics in America.

"The part of the trip which gave me the greatest feeling of accomplishment was two days which I spent in the mountains of western North Carolina. There I have been paying a nurse to go from house to house under the direction of a local doctor to offer free birth control supplies to the mothers who want it. She took me to see some of her patients, all of whom spoke with great gratitude of the help which it is giving them and said it was a great thing for the community as a whole." —from one of Gamble's letters.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. interesting: Today in Western N-Carolina, a nonprofit offers drug addicts $ to be sterilized..

Today in Western North Carolina, a nonprofit group offers drug addicts money to be "voluntarily" sterilized. It is dubious whether one could honestly consider this program to be voluntary or ethical, since many people suffering from drug addictions will do nearly anything for money—and that money will likely go to scoring their next fix.

[Heidi]

2. Recommended.

:kick:

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

Interesting read

[ZombieHorde]

4. This article has an anti-eugenics bias. A more balanced article would have been more fun. nt

[saras]

5. Most articles on rape have an anti-rape bias. So?

Curious idea of "fun" and it's importance.

[Ohio Joe]

8. Eugenics does not equal rape

Eugenics does not have to be a bad thing.

[ZombieHorde]

14. Unbiased rape articles are better than biased rape articles.

Unless the article is a personal essay, or an editorial, who cares about the author's opinion?

[jwirr]

6. Since I come from a family who suffered from the pre-WWII eugenics

movement I would say that there is no way to be unbiased. I am only here today because the family lived in an area where the practice was limited to the victims and not their families as was the case in many areas of the US.


After that the practice found its way to the notice of Adolf Hitler and we all know how unbiased we should be about that. :sarcasm:

[ZombieHorde]

12. I was not saying jwirr should be unbiased. There are things I have a hard time being unbiased about.

I just think an article which had as little bias as possible would have been more interesting.

[xmas74]

7. I worked in mental health

We had individuals who were sterilized in the 60's and 70's. The information that was once in their charts stated that it happened between the ages of 12 and 15. Though none of the individuals could ever take care of themselves every last one knew what had happened and most said it was because they were "stupid" or "retarded".

[xchrom]

9. I think the real lesson to take away here is that eugenics winds up being classout class.

Even some African Americans were for eugenics.

[jwirr]

16. I will say that I know that the birth control movement started within the

eugenics movement and that is not a bad thing. Birth control allows families to control their own lives and it helps to keep population growth lower. I think the problem with eugenics in its early years and as an above post says - right up to the 70s was that it was done to try to rid the world of certain types of people. In my families case the two ladies who suffered did so because they were mentally ill. Many where labeled retarded and others were like the drug users considered drunkards.

Today under the new name of genetics there is voluntary counseling for families but as far as I know no one is forced to take action. That is the same with birth control. Today it is a program that works. However, have you ever considered what the same programs would be like if the Tbaggers ever get in control of them. Right back to square one. Force and coercion for all the wrong reasons.

[Octafish]

10. I will not buy another thing from Proctor & Gamble.

Thanks for the excellent article and thread, xchrom.

The subject is important to me. Some of the story before WW2:

Know your BFEE: Eugenics and the NAZIs - The California Connection

[WillyT]

11. K & R !!!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

13. K&R

[Odin2005]

15. "Autism Cure" Groups like Autism Speaks are full of neo-Eugenicists.

All us people with atypical neurologies need to be "fixed", dontcha know? :eyes:

[jwirr]

17. And given the ability to read our genes there will be very few of us

that do not fit into that scenario somewhere. My family can trace mental illness back 5 generations. The genes of that illness are probably spread throughout the family. Many of us recognize varying degrees of it in all of us even though this generation has only two people out of the whole family who do not function just fine in society.