Background: Eugenicists at the beginning of the twentieth century feared that the "unfit" were outbreeding the "fit" and promoted interventions like sterilisation as a solution to the perceived problem. Over 60,000 people were sterilised across the United States, victims of eugenic programs implemented in 32 states. Utah had a particularly aggressive eugenic sterilisation program, hailed by eugenicists for sterilising such a large proportion of its population, and lasting well into the 1970s. The goal of the present study was to determine who, at the demographic level, was targeted by this eugenic practice in Utah, and to also estimate how many survivors of the program might still be alive in 2023.
Methods: We used archival records and data abstracted from charts at the Utah State Developmental Center to construct an observational cohort of people sterilised under Utah's coercive, eugenic sterilisation program. We described the demographics of the cohort and presented a life table analysis to estimate the number of survivors still living in 2023.
Findings: At least 830 men, women, and children (modal age of 15-19, 53.6% female) were sterilised in Utah institutions under a program that was launched in 1925, peaked in the 1940s, and concluded in the 1970s. The life table analysis predicts approximately 54 survivors (36 women, 18 men), with an average age of 78.
Interpretation: Many people sterilised under Utah's eugenics law are likely living today. While some states have taken steps to reckon with their roles in depriving people of their reproductive rights, Utah lacks even an official acknowledgment of this shameful, medical history. Given the advanced age of the potential survivors, time is running out for a reconciliation that can be experienced by those who were most harmed by the practice.
Funding: This research was supported by three grants from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (RM1HG009037, R25HG010020, R01HG010567).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2023.100436 | DOI Listing |
Soc Hist Med
August 2024
Department of History, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
This paper explains the coexistence of concerns about hereditary degeneration and opposition to reproductive intervention such as sterilisation in Dutch eugenic discourse during the interwar years. Based on an analysis of textbooks, periodical publications and printed lectures, I will show how eugenicists positioned themselves within the domain of public health by framing their domain of inquiry as a pivotal addition to curative medicine and sanitary reform. Dutch eugenicists rendered this symbiotic relationship conceptually plausible by combining criticism of genetic determinism and Lamarckian viewpoints on heredity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Cell Infect Microbiol
October 2024
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Am J Case Rep
October 2024
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Biosystems
December 2024
Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, K7L3N6, Canada. Electronic address:
The peace of the world is challenged by societal confrontations that can often be labeled "racial" or "ethnic." Emblematic of this is discrimination based on skin colour. William Bateson's background suggests sympathy with the black emancipation movement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Biol Rep
September 2024
Medical Genetics Institute of Henan Province, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou University People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, 450003, China.
Background: The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), methionine synthase reductase (MTRR) polymorphisms, 5 serum related molecular levels and the risk of adverse pregnancies in different genders.
Methods: Patients aged from 22 to 38 with a history of adverse pregnancy treated in our genetic eugenics clinic of Henan Provincial People's Hospital are selected. The controls aged from 20 to 34 undergoing eugenics examinations in our genetic eugenics clinic that had no history of adverse pregnancy and at least one healthy child are selected.
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