Eugenics (Missouri, Indiana, compared, states)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I had heard of eugenics before, but it was recently jogged in my memory by a news article and a slideshow.

Found In The Archives: America's Unsettling Early Eugenics Movement : The Picture Show : NPR
N.C. Considers Paying Forced Sterilization Victims : NPR

Eugenics persisted, in some places, into the 1970s.

I haven't found any known sterilized people in my family tree, though I have a great-great grandfather who died in a mental hospital in the 1920s. He was older and already had nearly grown children, so I'm not sure that he would have been sterilized. I've had a few others in my tree with mental problems, but no sterilization that I've noticed.

Of course, my family was white, whereas many eugenics victims appear to have been other races or immigrants. My family was also poor, but not exceptionally so, so that may be another reason they were not targeted. According to this Missouri did not pass eugenics laws

By the time Missouri was attempting to pass a sterilization measure in 1929 it was already considerably behind the curve compared with many states in the nation. By the time Missouri voted on its first sterilization bill Indiana had already passed a sterilization law (1907), had it struck down in court (1921), and passed a new law (1927) (Baldanzi et al.) and 19 states had already sterilized a total of 8,515 people. There had already been calls in Missouri for a law to prevent certain “mental defectives” from breeding by some such as M. O. Biggs, superintendent of the Fulton asylum. In a report to the general assembly he asserted that there was a consensus that epileptics, the feebleminded, imbeciles, and other mental defectives shouldn’t breed (Lael et al., p. 96).

Missouri Eugenics

Have eugenics made an impact on your family tree?

[CAVA1990]

With what they're finding out now about sociopaths inheriting that trait there may have been some validity to their beliefs. Now instead of sterilizing them we just put those people in prison.

[linicx]

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