From the Case Files: Reconstructing a history of involuntary sterilisation

Abstract

Although it is well-known that numerous jurisdictions in North America adopted legislation in the first half of the twentieth century allowing the involuntary sterilisation of persons diagnosed as 'mentally deficient', analysis of its implementation has rarely progressed beyond the examination of the legislation and the aggregate data presented in official reports. In this paper we analyse the case files of the Eugenics Board for the province of Alberta. The primary sources contained in these files reveal something of the hand of officialdom: clinical reports, diagnoses, test results and 'patient' history. The files allow glimpses of the individual stories of those who were sterilised. Much more directly, they present the case made for involuntary sterilisation from professional, often custodial perspectives. Thus, they afford us a richer understanding of the culture which sanctioned the practice of forcible sterilisation.

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