Posted on 08/04/2007 11:02:02 AM PDT by wagglebee
The State of North Carolina sterilized Mary English.
The Fayetteville woman was 22 at the time, pregnant and divorced. The year was 1972.
She says the doctor who performed the procedure told her it was birth control.
Almost three years later the same doctor, an OB-GYN, said she had been sterilized. English cried that she had not been told that before. She says the doctor scoffed at her concern and even laughed.
The doctor still works in Fayetteville, she says.
“I know who he is, and he knows who he is,” she says.
She is not ready to reveal his name, but says it will be soon.
Meanwhile, English and others told their stories to the state House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. State Rep. Larry Womble, a Forsyth County Democrat, is leading an effort to get compensation for English and 7,600 others who underwent procedures as part of a sterilization program funded by the state from 1929 to 1974.
The woe of English and others present a no-brainer for our legislators. They should duly compensate each one of the victims of this tragic abuse.
“Since the state did this, the state ought to be responsible for this,” Womble has said. “And the state ought to make sure these people are made whole.”
What monetary amount would be just, Lord only knows. How can the state truly make amends for robbing people of their ability to give that most priceless gift, life?
The sterilization effort was based on the bankrupt theory of eugenics, that society would improve if those designated as the worst sort were not allowed to reproduce. These were people who were supposedly “morally or mentally deficient.” Usually, they were poor people.
Although a disproportionate number of blacks such as English were targeted, class played as big a role as race.
Whites accounted for the largest number of victims, with 2,851 women and 675 men sterilized, according to an exhibit on eugenics at the State Museum of History in Raleigh. The numbers for blacks are 2,098 women and 235 men.
Visitors to the exhibit can pick up a receiver upon entering and hear English and others tell their stories. She took part in the opening ceremony in June.
She does not know why her doctor encouraged her to take part in what he said was a birth-control program, paid for by the state. She admits to signing a piece of paper but says she was misled. She says she would have definitely remembered if the doctor had said the word “sterilization.”
“I totally trusted my doctor,” she says.
Today, English, whom friends call “Bunny,” does not sound bitter, but determined. She has made a good life for herself, she says, and raised three children whom she had before the procedure. She has five grandchildren.
She has worked on TV and radio in the Fayetteville area and now volunteers for the Arts Council. She was downtown Friday for the Fourth Friday arts event, enjoying life.
She says people have encouraged her to seek legal action against the doctor, but she does not see the good in that. She is just glad that people are now aware of what went on.
“A lot of people don’t know it happened,” she says.
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Frustrating that “the State” should have to pay for what the doctor did. I know this woman deserves something, but why force today’s taxpayers to face the punishment deserved by yesterday’s lawmakers?
Unfortunately, the people of the State of North Carolina left the burden of this misguided, brutal, and monstrous policy for future generations to bear. What a horrible, sickening story.
She does not know why her doctor encouraged her to take part in what he said was a birth-control program, paid for by the state. She admits to signing a piece of paper but says she was misled. She says she would have definitely remembered if the doctor had said the word “sterilization.”
—
She volunteered for an operation for birth control. Wouldn’t you understand that you were being sterilized? It was the doctors fault? This sounds to me like going after the money.
It’s still around and the left defends tooth and nail.
Today it is out in the open, is advertised and makes a profit.
Its name is Planned Parenthood.
Unfortunately, this was state-sanctioned and wide-spread in North Carolina and Virginia.
There were appeals all the way to the SCOTUS, and they ENDORSED it.
Black’s book “ America’s War Against the Weak” chronicles it.
Wagglebee, I think I am missing part of the title. Do you know it?
I hope each and every one of the plaintiffs gets $5,000,000, at taxpayer expense. And the doctors who engaged in deceit should be sued personally and lose their homes, their boats, their *ass.
You make a fair point. I simply don't know what the most just solution might be.
As you point out, the victim mentioned above does deserve some compensation--although monetary damages seem hugely inadequate. To penalize today's taxpayers for the misdeeds of yesteryear's lawmakers, however, does not seem quite like an equitable solution. In fact, it is reminiscent of "affirmative action" programs that punish college applicants, prospective employees, or anyone else because of the misdeeds of others in past generations.
However, since it would be impossible to have this woman (or other victims of eugenics) "made whole," in the words of one North Carolina lawmaker, by simply excoriating past lawmakers, this seems like a non-solution.
But that still does not prove that it is okay to penalize those who are innocent of any wrongdoing in this case.
It is a serious conundrum. I just don't know what sort of action would most nearly satisfy the interests of justice.
This is a horrible thing to do to people.
I don’t remember the name of the book. I’ve seen copies of the “release forms” that the victims signed. The victims were primarily poor and uneducated, they were offered free medical care. In return they signed lengthy release forms in legalize that they were not expected to understand and buried inside was the fact that they were being sterilized.
Of course this is still not as sickening as the Tuskegee Syphilis Program where black men with syphilis were “tracked” for several decades to see how the syphilis destroyed their brains and bodies. The kicker was that the program was begun AFTER antibiotics were being used to successfully treat syphilis.
What’s so magical about the word ‘sterilization’?
She knew it was birth control, thus would prevent pregnancy. She knew it was an operation, thus permanent.
I call BS. She (or more likely someone with an agenda that looked her up and contacted her) is simply looking for a way to cash in on an event from her past - one that she damn well knew for what it was. The word sterilization is the hook she is hanging her case on, but she knew what she signed up for amounted to sterilization even if that ‘scary’ word wasn’t used.
To quote Chief Justice Holmes: Three generations of idiots is enough!
I personally do not want to pay taxes to support idiots on welfare but feel free to add your name to the “Tax Me More” fund. If you and your family are welfare queens, do not expect sympathy from me - I think welfare recipients should be required to have Norplant as a condition of receiving taxpayer money.
The STATE of North Carolina implemented and funded this program, the STATE’S liability does not cease because there are different lawmakers in North Carolina today.
Tisssss (eugenics)... is her "signature".
Thissss....
Do you support all aspects of the eugenics?
I don't know a whole lot about this North Carolina program - did the participants have any choice as to whether they were sterilized, or was it forced upon them?
Read what I said in 11.
Do you consider requiring birth control as a condition for receiving public assistance to be 'all aspects of the eugenics'?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.