One of the first actions of Hitler as the leader of Germany was the adoption in 1933 of the "Law on the prevention of the birth of offspring with hereditary diseases." Men and women who suffered from dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia fell under it. At the same time, many countries carried out similar sterilization until the 80s of the twentieth century, which did not prevent them from being considered a stronghold of democracy and civil liberties.
Racially pure Europe
In Nazi Germany, in addition to the mentally ill, people with hereditary deafness, blindness, physical deformities, chronic alcoholics, Jews and gypsies were sterilized. In total, from 200 to 500 thousand people went through the procedure in Germany. The decision on forced sterilization was made by a commission of two psychiatrists and a judge. However, not only the Nazis were fond of eugenics.
We Are Not Alone: A 1936 German poster showing the flags of countries where forced sterilization was permitted.
Forced sterilization of Roma women was carried out in the Czech Republic from 1979 to 1989. Similar operations were enforced in Switzerland until the late 1980s. The mentally retarded and gypsies fell under the law. However, the greatest scope of experiments on eugenics was obtained in prosperous Sweden, where people were forcibly sterilized from 1934 to 1976.
According to the law "on the purity of the race," the operation was performed on citizens with mental disabilities, hereditary diseases and people of mixed race. The operation did not require the consent of the person, and the State Institute of Racial Biology ran the program.
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The United States is the birthplace of sterilization
The USA is the first country to introduce sterilization law. In different states, the procedure was done to people with mental disorders, mental retardation, deaf, blind and epileptic. In Indiana and Ohio, alcoholics were forbidden to have children, and in Virginia and New Hampshire, marriage between people of different races was allowed only after complete sterilization.
The procedure was also supported by the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, who said:
By 1939, the operation was performed on 30 thousand citizens. The US government encouraged the sterilization of Indian and black women. When they went to the hospital for various reasons, they were sterilized without their knowledge.
In the state of California alone, from 1909 to 1964, 20 thousand people went through the operation. In North Carolina, by 1973, 8,000 citizens were sterilized. In the United States, eugenics sterilization continued until 1974.
Asian experience
Forced sterilization has been widely used in China and India. In the 1970s, as part of the "one family, one child" policy, officials in certain Chinese provinces sterilized women. Today, this practice is not used, but in 2010 Amnesty International Foundation accused the authorities of the city of Puning of forcibly sterilizing citizens.
The procedure was especially widely used in India. After Indira Gandhi came to power and the National Congress, a "state of emergency" policy was introduced. Opposition was banned in the country, freedom of citizens was limited, censorship and repression were introduced.
From 1975 to 1977, there was a forced sterilization program in India that affected 10 million Indian women. Thus, the Gandhi government tried to combat poverty in the big cities.
The Japanese authorities have officially apologized for the sterilization and paid monetary compensation to the victims of the law.
Sterilization laws were in force in Japan from 1948 to 1996. The operation was performed on men and women if their fourth-degree relatives had genetic abnormalities. 25 thousand people fell under this eugenics law, of whom most of the procedure was done by force.