No matter in today's pop culture or academic circles, people regard eugenics as the past tense, and think that it quickly perished with the Nazi regime because of the extreme eugenics measures implemented by fascist Germany as early as 1945. Nazi's enthusiasm for eugenics led them to commit countless atrocities: Jewish concentration camps, involuntary euthanasia, genocide ... After people all over the world learned about Nazi brutality, eugenics no longer had a market. It is no longer a social movement supported by state power, nor is it a scientific concept recognized by the public and can guide social policies.
However, what I have seen in these 20 years is not the case. I have lived in Alberta, Canada for most of the past 20 years. According to the law, this area still carries out the policy of eugenic sterilization. The local government has been vigorously implementing the Sexual Sterilization Act passed by 1928 until 1972 was abolished. The bill stipulates that the government should set up a eugenics committee composed of four members and give them the right to approve the sterilization of people living in designated government institutions (usually mental hospitals). Before 1939, only 32 states and a few states in the United States passed eugenics sterilization laws similar to those in Alberta—North Carolina, Georgia and Oregon—and continued to sterilize domestic citizens on the basis of their own laws until the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition, there are more direct reasons that make me think that eugenics is actually the ghost. When I was working in university of alberta, John MacEachran, the head of my department, was a philosopher. He was officially employed by the university and engaged in academic research like me. From 1928 to 1965, he served as the chairman of Alberta eugenics Committee. In other words, he devoted the last third of his life to the eugenics committee. Mccarron has served as the provost of university of alberta for many years and is the most prestigious administrative leader of the school. During his tenure in the eugenics committee, he signed 2,832 sterilization orders, about half of which were signed in the so-called "post-eugenics era", that is, after the collapse of Nazi regime in China.
Shortly after I moved to Alberta, I came into contact with a series of legal lawsuits filed by survivors of the eugenics policy in the 1990s, and then I learned about this history and the role played by McLennan. In my work, I met many professionals who participated in these legal proceedings as expert witnesses. More importantly, I also met several survivors of the eugenics policy who filed lawsuits and made friends with them.
Among these survivors, the most noteworthy one is Leilani Muir (1944-20 16). From 65438 to 0996, the documentary "The Sterilization of Leilani Muir" made the public pay attention to her experience. At the age of ten, Li Lanni was sent to the so-called work-study school for reform because of "mental defect".
Since then, she has fallen into the whirlpool of Alberta's eugenics policy. However, Li Lanni has no "mental defect". In fact, the person who recommended and authorized her sterilization had evidence to prove that she was "normal". In fact, she is just an abandoned baby abandoned by cruel parents. Her mother just wants to get rid of her as soon as possible and pursue her own life. Li Lanni recalled: "My mother threw me out of the car like a bag of garbage. Because of this, I entered the work-study school. "