"It seems to me to be very much against the spirit of our constitution . . . I feel that these operations were medically unethical," said Dr. Donald G. Johnson, a physician and lecturer in the UNCW history department.
From 1929 until 1974, North Carolina ran a eugenics program that sterilized about 7,600 men and women. The program, a part of the Department of Public Welfare, selected men and women that were poor, uneducated or institutionalized.
According to doa.state.nc.us, "Eugenics was developed in the late 1800s as selective breeding of humans and animals to the population of characteristics deemed unfit." Indiana was the first state to pass the sterilization law in 1907, and by 1935, 25 states had sterilization laws.
In 1919, the first sterilization law was enacted, but there were no reported sterilizations. By 1929, things had changed. The second sterilization law was enacted and 49 people were reported to have been sterilized. Between 1950 and 1960, 2,983 people were reported sterilized.
Governor Beverly Perdue established the NC Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation in March of 2011 to help the victims of this program fight for justice. The task force, consisting of five members, determined the method and amount of compensation for those who were found to be real victims of the program. An amount of $50,000 was determined to provide compensation to the defined victims.
Cheyenne Vaughn, a first-year student at Central Carolina Community College, is in disbelief about the eugenics program. "There are some women out there who can't have their own children because of personal medical problems. Why would the state forcibly take away that right to someone who did have the choice to have children?" Sterilization left men and women who wanted to start their own families with a loved one unable to do so because the state forcibly took away that right. "What gives them the right to take away that gift?" said Vaughn.
"Americans have a way of not paying much attention to what some governmental policies have done to some citizens throughout the 1900s," said Johnson.
With Perdue's task force taking action, the eugenics victims voices are becoming stronger. Many interviews with the victims have been reported over the past few weeks, and the citizens of the US are finally starting to pay attention.
"I will make sure to read the important parts of anything I will have to sign in the future to avoid something like this happening to me," Vaughn said.
With the victims speaking out about what happened to them, the NC Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation is able to help the victims, family members and those that are still unaware of being a victim of the eugenics program. Those unaware of their own sterilization are asked to contact the foundations help line where they can provide information for researchers to look up their information and determine if they were a victim of the eugenics program.
