Eugenics was sold as a science of improving the human race through the procreation of people thought to have humanity's best traits, while decreasing the birth rate of those saddled with the worst.
Does this sound like Nazi Germany?
How about a little closer to home....like North Carolina.
(07/25/07 -- RALEIGH) - An outspoken victim of a secret sterilization movement in N.C. told her story to state lawmakers this morning. Mary English wants N.C. to recognize and compensate victims of the eugenics movement.
The idea of sterilizing people the state considered morally or "morally or mentally deficient" was accepted for many years in N.C.
Wednesday members of the House Appropriations Committee heard personal stories about the pain caused by eugenics, but they haven't endorsed the idea of compensation for victims.
English found out she'd been sterilized a year and a half after accepting her OB/GYN's offer to help with birth control. "So he presented me with some papers, just sign them not to worry the state would pay for everything," English explained.
She told lawmakers about getting sterilized without her consent while in her 20s. She said the doctor who performed the procedure laughed when two years later she asked him to repair her damaged reproductive system.
"He said, 'No, I couldn't have told you that. You're sterile. You'll never have another child,'" English recalled. "When you're told something like that in your early 20s, it's kind of devastating."
The former radio broadcaster believes she's one of 7,600 North Carolinians sterilized against their will between 1929 and 1974 - apparently based, in part, on their race. English says, "So we were black and we were poor, that's why we were sterilized."
She said the doctor who sterilized her still works in Fayetteville.
"If I could see him, I would certainly want to know, why me?" English went on to ask, "And why did he participate in something of this nature."
State Representative Larry Womble wants women like English to get more than the apology for state sponsored sterilization issued four years ago by the governor.
"And since the state did this, the state ought to be responsible for this," said Rep. Womble. "And the state ought to make sure these people are made whole."
The Appropriations Committee considered his bill to compensate sterilization victims like Elaine Riddick.
She said the operation was performed when she was 14 and caused severe physical and emotional problems.
"Help me to become a whole person again, to help me heal," Riddick said. "Thank you."
The house committee agreed to study the bill.
"I would certainly like to help them get this bill passed on the senate side," said Senator Kay Hagen, Guilford County.
The Senator said she thinks the bill has a chance to pass.
English is ambivalent about the state finally paying her and other victims years later. She says money can't replace the opportunities for motherhood she lose. "It's not something that you get over, its not some you ever forget." English adds, "Even though we'll get compensation of $20,000 and we get a nice apology, you still haven't told us why."
There is an exhibit about eugenics inside the State Museum of History through August 1.
abc11tv.com: Victims of Sterilization Want Compensation
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