Compulsory Sterilization: Is it Humane? Biologically speaking, it is a primary goal to pick out reproductive partners with favorable characteristics and having those characteristics inherited in future offspring. Both animals and humans work the same way using favorable traits as physical representations good genes. During the nineteenth century, Gregory Mendel, a monk with a passion for nature, conducted experiments with pea plant reproduction to observe physical traits to offsprings, thus concluding to prove the laws of inheritance from genes, based on the laws of heredity (Rhee). Mendel had displayed the physical traits that each plant gains from the parents that are dominating and would be past down. It took over three decades after his …show more content…
With sterilization being forced upon them, the patients would not expect this to happen and have a heavy, emotional response to it. Many sources show that patients that commonly experienced compulsory sterilization were women and those in prison or in a mental institution. For example, within the 1970s, patient Julie was sterilized without being informed, though signed a form for it, believing it to be for a painkiller, and her husband left her upon finding out about her sterilization because he “wanted a real woman” (Peal). As far as sterilization in prison goes, it has been both forced and informed, depending on how the situation has gone. In 1909, Californian “medical superintendents of asylums and prisons” could sterilize their patient, so long as it actually improves the person physically, mentally, or morally, though this sterilization law has changed over the years (Stern 1129). On December 18, 2006, Tessa Savicki went to Baystate Medical Center for a Caesarean section, only to later find out that the surgeons had tied her fallopian tubes after delivering her baby (Diaz-Duran). Savicki expresses her emotions as shocked, upset, and disgusted by the action that caused her to be sterile permanently, fearing that her husband would leave her because of that (Diaz-Duran). In the case of 2007, Crystal Nguyen of Valley State Prison for Women worked in the prison’s medical center and overheard the staff asking inmates, like herself, to be sterilized. Christina Cordero was an inmate for two years who agreed to be sterilized, pressured by a medical staff member into feeling like “a bad mother” of five, but as of 2008 she quotes, “Today I wish I would have never had it done.” (Johnson). These patients exhibit disapproval to this compulsory sterilization, even when agreeing or almost tricked into
Heredity was a concept that little was known about before the 20th century. In that era, there were two main concepts that most followed about heredity. First, that heredity occurred within a species, and second, that traits were given directly from parents to offspring. These ideas led people to believe that inheritance was the result of a blend of traits within a fixed, unchanging species. In 1856, Gregor Mendel began his experiments in which he would discover the basic underlying principles of heredity.
The purpose of our experiment was to test whether or not the Wisconsin Fast Plants, or Brassica rapa, followed the Mendelian genetics and its law of inheritance. First, after we crossed the heterozygous F1 generation, we created an F2 generation which we used to analyze. After analyzing our results, we conducted a chi-square test for for both the F1 and F2 generations to test their “goodness of fit”. For the F1 generation we calculated an x2 value of 6.97, which was greater than the value on the chi-square table at a p-value of 0.05 and 1 degree of freedom (6.97 > 3.84). This meant that we had to reject our hypothesis that stated there would be no difference between the observed and expected values. This showed us that the F1
A woman in the film explains that, she lack of so much information that in the day after the surgery, she was cut and sew with black thread and she said “O my God” what have they cut me. In addition, she mentions that she was a total ignorant, but she feels that she wasn’t forced to do it that she went on her own free will, but if she would have been told of other childbirth methods she would have done it. Also, another woman said that the gynecologist told her that she was going to have the tied tube procedure that consisted of having her Fallopian tubes tied, but she didn’t know it was also
Forced sterilizations were fairly common in camps such as Ravenbrück, as they were all women, the Nazis could do regular sterilization experiments on their bodies to carry out their ultimate goal of race purification and keep Jewish women from procreating. Even though men endured forced sterilizations as well, one would argue it affected women more deeply because in the societal norms at the time women’s worth in society was dictated by how many children they had. Nazi rhetoric that surrounded issues of pregnancy greatly affected Jewish women because of the propaganda surrounding how they are promiscuous and could have children seemingly faster than
The focus of this paper is to discuss the different characteristics of the two most effective methods of child births: Natural births and Cesarean section (C-section). Child birth includes labor and delivery; the entire process of passage from the womb, to the birth canal, to the outside world. Natural birth is a method of child birth in which medical interventions are minimal and the mother usually practices relaxation and breathing techniques to minimize pain during delivery. Cesarean section (c-section) is a method of birth which involves delivery through incisions in the abdominal walls and uterus. Natural births and C-sections both pose documented medical risks to the mother’s health including infections and other medical mishaps (Rowe- Murray 2002).
The advancement and continued developments of third-party assisted reproductive medical practices has allowed many prospective parents, regardless of their marital status, age, or sexual orientation, to have a new opportunity for genetically or biologically connected children. With these developments come a number of rather complex ethical issues and ongoing discussions regarding assisted reproduction within our society today. These issues include the use of reproductive drugs, gestational services such as surrogacy as well as the rights of those seeking these drugs and services and the responsibilities of the professionals who offer and practice these services.
The idea of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed race is often credited to Adolf Hitler. The not as well-known part is that this idea was around before Hitler and actually was spread to Germany by eugenics scientists in the United States. In this paper we will look into the full history of eugenics and how the idea was spread across the world. Along the journey we will encounter many major donors that may be of surprise to some of us. Eugenics has been a dark presence in the history of America and will continue to be until real strides are made to end racism.
“If we could just keep dumb people from having children, eventually there would be nothing but smart people and this would be a better place.” After reading this statement once and not really fully considering it, a lot of people may agree. At some point in their lives, many people may look at certain parents and their children and say, ‘those people really should not be allowed to have children.’ Usually these thoughts are just thoughts, for who are we to say who can and cannot have children. However, what if a government official proposed to sterilize everyone with less than an average IQ of 100. Would preventing ‘dumb’ people from reproducing really make this world a better place? Is the status of our society based on the intelligence of its people alone? The answer to solving the world’s problems and making this a better place to live are not that simple. There are many complex issues around defining and measuring intelligence. Even if we knew for sure that only ‘smart’ people make this place better, would sterilizing the ‘dumb’ work? How important is it to take into account other things that may affect a person’s development? Intelligence is influenced by the interaction of genetics, environment, and culture; therefore, sterilizing people would probably not keep the world free of people with an IQ of less than 100.
Darwin theorized that nature selects those traits that best allow a species to reproduce and survive.
Suffragists fought very hard for nearly a century to get the Nineteenth Amendment passed. Most people are aware of the great efforts by such suffragists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, originating in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. However, what many people do not realize is the eugenic and racist ideas that the suffragists espoused. Why did the suffragists have these ideals, and where did they get them from? The sources discuss the suffragists’ motives in having these ideals, describe how these ideals advanced suffrage, and explain what larger implications this had in America both historically and politically.
Clark, A. (2009, July 6). Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery. Retrieved April 2014
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
Genes are expected to give offspring hereditary similarities to the parent. However, this was not known and Gregory Mendel asked himself what was passed on by parents to their offspring that is the basis for similarity. Mendel would go on through experiments with pea plants to answer short questions. The answers were short as well as to say that the passing of characteristics from parents to the offspring is throug...
Test tube babies have long been stigmatized by society as the unnatural results of scientific dabbling. The words `test tube baby' have been used by school children as an insult, and many adults have seen an artificial means of giving birth as something perhaps only necessary for a lesbian woman, or a luxury item only available to the elite few. The reality is that assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been helping infertile couples have children since 1978.1 The methods of in vitro fertilization, it's variants, and the other ART procedures are ways for persons that would otherwise have no hope of conception to conceive and, in a rapidly growing percentage of cases, give birth to healthy babies. As the technology has developed, the quality and range of assistance has developed as well. At present, the means of assisted reproduction and the capabilities of these procedures has grown at a somewhat dizzying pace. However, thought to the repercussions of the applications of ART are being disregarded to some extent while the public's knowledge and the understanding of embryologists and geneticists surges forward. It is possible given consideration to things such as the morality of these techniques, the unexplored alternative uses of these procedures, and the potential impact they posses that further development is unnecessary and possibly dangerous.
Gregor Mendel, born as Johann Mendel, is considered to be one of the most significant historic scientist of all time. He was an Austrian scientist and monk and is best known as the “Father of Modern Genetics.” He founded the science of genetics and discovered many things that dealt with heredity that still applies to our world today. He is remembered for paving the way for scientists and future generations to come. Unfortunately, Mendel’s work went unnoticed until 16 years after his death and 34 years after he published his research. Though Mendel lay covered in his grave, his work would eventually be uncovered. Although Mendel was not there to see it,