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Graduation Term

2015

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Department of History

Committee Chair

Patrice E. Olsen

Abstract

In 2003, eugenic sterilization victims were acknowledged as surviving human rights abuses. These sterilizations took place after World War II after eugenics as a science had largely been discredited as bad science. Rather than disappearing completely, eugenics transformed allowing for its survival. Historic racism, classism and sexism were conflated into modern paradigms of disability allowing for the sterilization of thousands through eugenics practices meant to eliminate the reproduction of individuals with disabilities. Case studies in North Carolina (at the state level) and Peru (at the national level) allow for an examination of how this discourse continues to exist and thrive to cause the devastating effects of human rights abuses on thousands of mostly poor, minority women through trickery, threats, bribes, and the terror of state run sterilization campaigns.

Access Type

Thesis-ISU Access Only

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2015.RusseauPletcher.A

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