bioethics: Winston-Salem Journal Report on Forced Sterilization

["odutola a" <chpss_abo@yahoo.com>]

FYI: Suggested Reading in Bioethics
[Apologies to list members who are thoroughly familiar with this report.]
"Against Their Will: North Carolina's Sterilization Program"
<http://againsttheirwill.journalnow.com/>

Recently, reporters from the Winston-Salem Journal obtained sealed records and 
are lifting the curtain on a horrifying truth: From 1933-1974, five members of 
the North Carolina eugenics board met every month and voted to sterilize up to 
30 complete strangers in the name of the "greater good." Eugenics was the 
controversial practice of weeding out undesirable genetics by forced 
sterilization. Most of those sterilized were [classified as] poor, illiterate, 
hypersexual, homosexual, promiscuous, or lazy -- characteristics deemed 
"undesirable." By the program's end, 7,600 people had been sterilized against 
their will. About 60% were black, and 99% were female. Some board members 
admit to battling a crisis of conscience but say it was difficult to vote 
against the tide of prevailing ideas and the support of North Carolina's 
medical and political elite. It's a story of a program that began with high 
hopes and good intentions but quickly devolved into something tragic and 
troubling."

This traumatic and disturbing story is a must read for several good reasons:

A)It highlights the constitutional necessity for the protection of citizens - 
most especially the "vulnerable" and for broad oversight of medical and health 
programs;

B) It speaks to the need for the enthronement of National Bioethics Guidelines 
in many third world countries where they don't exist; and

C) It drives home the significance of the core principles of Bioethics in 
Medicine: Plurality, Autonomy and Informed consent.

A. OdutolaCHPSS, Lagos, Nigeria

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