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Coping with a Public Menace: Eugenic Sterilization in Minnesota From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coping with a Public Menace: Eugenic Sterilization in Minnesota is a historical article written by historian Molly-Ladd Taylor about the history of the eugenics program utilized in the state of Minnesota. On April 8, 1925, Governor Theodore Christianson signed a bill making Minnesota the seventeenth state to legalize eugenic sterilization. Eugenics promoted the ideology of creating a society free of poverty and crime by reducing fertility in the “undesirable” individuals. States took up this new science in hopes of making a better society and ridding free of the individuals who "worsen" society. The first known eugenics institution to be implemented in Minnesota was the Minnesota School for the Feeble-Minded located in Faribault, MN. The Minnesota School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1879 that first opened as a hospital and school for the “feeble-minded” and epileptics. Despite the intentions of the state to better a society, many patients sent to the institutions were impoverished, sexually active women who violated conventional standards of morality and had children they could not support. By the 1960s, support for eugenics had waned and greater knowledge of human genetics, a new understanding of the capabilities of people with mental disabilities, and changing philosophies of medical professionals challenged the outdated views that were the basis of the Minnesota Sterilization policy. By 1975, after years of debate and challenges against the Minnesota Eugenic's policy, the policy was changed to provide more protection for unwanted sterilization yet to this day sterilization is still permitted upon a court order.

About the Author

Molly-Ladd Taylor is a historian writer who is an associate professor at York University. She has published many research articles on various topics concerning historical and current societal issues in America and many parts of the world. Much of her work focuses specifically on women's issues in relation to work, family, relationships, and other aspects within their lives. Some of her work includes:

Becoming a Historian: A Canadian Manual, 2nd ed., co-Edited with Franca Iacovetta et al. Canadian Historical Association: 2008 (first ed., 1999).

Women, Health and Nation: Canada and the United States Since 1945 Co-edited with Georgina Feldberg, Alison Li & Kathryn McPherson (Mc-Gill-Queen’s University Press, 2003) 438 pp.

“My Left History [Symposium on ‘What is Left History?’],” Left History 11 (Spring 2006): 15-17.

Eugenics in History

Francis Galton first coined the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883. Under his definition, eugenics was the “study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally.” Galton believed that a wide range of human characteristics were inherited, including mental, physical, and moral traits. He concluded through his research that several traits associated with inadequacy were inherited. During the time when Galton first coined the term "eugenics", nor he or other eugenic professionals understood genetics and the methods of inheritance. With the lack of scientific research at the time, their misunderstanding led to their method of inheritance known as eugenics.

Consequences of Eugenics

Eugenics has been the subject of many social consequences throughout history. Dating back to the early 19th century, large numbers of African Americans were subjected to slavery and racial abolishment due to the genetic color of their skin. The ideals of eugenic was also evident in Adolf Hitler's persecution and genocide of Jews and different ethnic groups through what is known as the Holocaust.

References

http://campus.udayton.edu/~hume/Eugenics/eugenics.htm

http://people.laps.yorku.ca/people.nsf/researcherprofile?readform&shortname=mltaylor

Cardenas, Rick and Halvorson, Nathan. "Historians Speak on Sterilization in Minnesota", Access Press, July 10th, 2001. Access December 5, 2014.

Ladd-Taylor, Molly. “Coping with a ‘Public Menace’: Eugenic Sterilization in Minnesota,” Minnesota History 59 (Summer 2005): 237-248.