The Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada introduced the Sexual Sterilization Act (1928). This act was to protect the gene pool, allowing the government to sterilize the mentally disabled persons so there would be no offspring created by them for they could only create undesirable children. The eugenicist believed that if these people had children they would inherit their mental illness, criminal behaviours or any other deviant behaviour they might have.
They even believed that they had a higher reproduction rate then the normal person without any physical or mental problems. You might think they thought these people bred like rabbits, how stupid can people be and the sad part of this is there are still people out there that believe that they still should be sterilized.
Some of the five prominent women of Canadian history supported the bill, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Irene Palby, Nellie McClung, who believed that they had to keep the gene pool protected.
Leilani Muir was put into a school for the Mentally Defectives at the age of 11
At the age of 14 (1959) Leilani Muir was sterilized at the consent of the Alberta government. Why was she sterilized at the age of 14 because some of Alberta's finest passed a law to sterilize anyone who they deemed 'not fit' to bear children. She was given an IQ test in which she failed I presume and that gave them enough evidence to proceed with the sterilization of Leilani Muir. A doctor told Leilani that she could bear no children for what they had done to her insides was considered a slaughterhouse. She began a suit against the government in October of 1989, and won her case on January 25th, 1996 on wrongful sterilization and confinement she won $740,000. It took her seven years to get her case awarded this amount. Was she really compensated for all the emotional stress they had put her through. No, for no one can ease the hurt that someone thought her unable to be a mother, or, grandmother. How can anyone compensate for that. There is no real healing here just cheap compensation.
They performed castration and testicular biopsies on men with Downs Syndrome. Why would they do this when they were sterile from birth? I wonder if it was just science intervening and not the fact that these men could not contribute to the next generation.
The Sexual Sterilization Act came into effect in 1928 and was repealed in 1972. It effected the lives of approximately 3,000 people who could not reverse the sterilization. Those whom the prominent people thought to be unfit to have children were immigrants new to the country, women who had no husbands, epileptics, alcoholics, natives and the poor. Today Leilani and others are suing the government for sterilizing them without their knowledge.
Leilani sued the government and won
Monday, October 8, 2007
Leilani Muir
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2 comments:
I strongly agree with you that the money she was awarded after winning her case is by no means near a just compensation. However we cannot change the past. Is there anything that you can think of that we (society and the government) should be doing towards the people who were affected by this?
I don't think that anything would be able to compensate for this however I do think that it should be mandatory for everyone to be educated on these travesties. I believe that truths like these should be entrenched into education plans country wide.
I am still utterly disgusted from this video, and also at the fact that the is a hidden truth. Why had I never heard of this before (i hope i am a rare case) because this is a tragedy that should be told worldwide in the classroom, to turn people away from such disgusting attitudes of disabled individuals. I cannot belive that they castrated males with down's when they in fact, were already sterile? I do not get this, is this cruelty for the sake of proving that "you are not one of us".... it is like they did this to segregate them even more. Another point I would like to agree with you on is that 750,000 is a lot of money, and I am sure provided Leilani with a little bit of extra pampering in her life, but like you said i dont think all of the money in the world could replace what this girl went through. I have such pity and sorrow for her, and it is not because of her disability at all, she is fine with herself so why should we pity her? It is for the emotional trauma she had to endure because of her slight deviation from the norm. It is like they were trying to make a dominant species through 'the survival of the fittest'. Without diofferences society would be dull and close minded, it is the differences that educate us on whole new realms of life and i think that we need to look beyond silly IQ tests (which i think are not accuaret at all, but thats just me) and look for the person they are, so what if someone is iliterate, they can still love and be loved...
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