[stevewig]

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times January 25, 2012

Sterilized in North Carolina, she felt raped once more - latimes.com

Reporting from Raleigh, N.C.—
Elaine Riddick was a confused and frightened 14-year-old. She was poor and black, the daughter of alcoholic parents in a segregated North Carolina town. And she was pregnant after being raped by a man from her neighborhood.

Riddick's miserable circumstances attracted the attention of social workers, who referred her case to the state's Eugenics Board. In an office building in Raleigh, five men met to consider her fate — among them the state health director and a lawyer from the attorney general's office.

Board members concluded that the girl was "feebleminded" and doomed to "promiscuity." They recommended sterilization. Riddick's illiterate grandmother, Maggie Woodard, known as "Miss Peaches," marked an "X" on a consent form.

Hours after Riddick gave birth to a son in Edenton, N.C., on March 5, 1968, a doctor sliced through her fallopian tubes and cauterized them.

"They butchered me like a hog," recalls Riddick, now a poised and determined woman of 57.

What a terrible tale - and its only just going through the court.....

[pingflood]

Sad as that is, Sweden (where I am from and live) is considered very progressive and was still doing this crap even in the 1970s... the whole forced sterilization thing is a bizarre contraption.

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

Sad as that is, Sweden (where I am from and live) is considered very progressive and was still doing this crap even in the 1970s... the whole forced sterilization thing is a bizarre contraption.

Several other democratic European countries too. It is hard by today's standards to understand how they defended it, but they were sure they did the right thing. It clearly tells us that the fate of the individual was of a less concern.

[normhead]

Board members concluded that the girl was "feebleminded" and doomed to "promiscuity." They recommended sterilization. Riddick's illiterate grandmother, Maggie Woodard, known as "Miss Peaches," marked an "X" on a consent form.

Isn't it amazing how a few ignorant local political hacks are allowed to play god, and actually accept the role. You have to ask, what kind of morality is involved in believing you have the ability to determine who should be sterilized and who shouldn't. A person who believes in such things is clearly morally bankrupt. As would be anyone who would actually appoint someone to this task.