The American Eugenics Movement and Sterilization in the Early 20^th Century:

<p>In the process of spreading ʻeugenics,ʼ which was born in England at the end of the 19^th century, to the United States, Germany, Japan and other countries, how did the practice of eugenical sterilization to deprive individuals of the ability to reproduce, begin and spread?</p><p>This paper focuses on the eugenics movement in the United States. Why did the Midwestern state of Indiana enact the worldʼs first sterilization law, and how did it spread throughout the United States? This paper examines the historical backgrounds of defining “unfit” and determining who were the “unfit” who would be subjected to sterilization. Although the total number of sterilizations in the U.S. was more than 60,000 and the practice continued until around 1980, this paper focuses on the early years of sterilization practices from 1907 to the 1920s.</p><p>In the process of enacting the Indiana Law, Dr. Harry Sharp played a major role. He was one of the first practitioners of vasectomy which could be performed cheaply and safely. From 1907 to the 1920s, the number of states that enacted sterilization laws grew to 23. However, except for the case of California, the number of operations stagnated in many states. The next milestone was the Sterilization Law of Virginia (1924) where the white was immersed in the idea of protecting the purity of the “American race.” This law was then challenged in the Supreme Court in the 1927 Carrie Buck v. Bell Case. The American eugenics movement gained legitimacy with that ruling.</p><p>In the last part, this paper examined how Margaret Sangerʼs birth control movement intersected with the eugenics movement. In her Woman Rebel, Sanger proclaimed that “a womanʼs body belongs to herself alone” and defended unwed motherhood. But between 1917 and the 1920s, Sanger embraced “negative eugenics,” which aimed to reduce births and even sterilize the feebleminded and the insane. She attempted as an ardent follower of eugenics to merge the birth control and eugenics movements, and had a close working relationship with racist eugenicists such as Lothrop Stoddard.</p>