Disability, Eugenics, and Sterilizations: Toward a Sociology of Deviant Behavior and Social Control

• In Event: 158 - Section on Disability and Society Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03.

Abstract

Sterilizations were a core aspect of “eugenics,” the attempt of states to impose a form of social control on residents who did not fit the profile of those who should have children. They did not fit the profile due to a disability, that is, an attributed lack of ability to take care of themselves and their actual or potential offspring, and eugenic policies marginalized already marginal sections of the population even more. This paper addresses, first, the early history of eugenics in the context of Social Darwinist thought and the adoption of eugenic policies against the disabled in the form of sterilizations in the United State and Canada. Second, the paper discusses Nazi “racial hygiene” and eugenic sterilization policies in other nations. Finally, the paper discusses the decline of eugenic sterilizations in the second part of the 20th century and returns to current issues.

Author

• Lutz Kaelber, University of Vermont