Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michigan. Show all posts

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Dark Past: Michigan sterilized more than 3,000 people from early 1900s to 1970s

MLive
Lindsay Knake

While North Carolina is reliving some of its dark history, Michigan is not without its own.

Michigan was among the 35 states that allowed sterilization of people considered unfit to reproduce.

The stories of dozens North Carolina victims are coming to national prominence after people came forward to speak at a public hearing seeking compensation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the North Carolina government has a legislative proposal to compensate sterilized people with $20,000 each.

Victims have said they were lied to about the procedure. About 7,600 people in North Carolina were sterilized over five decades, and about 3,000 of those people are still alive, according to CNN.

Michigan shares in the eugenics horror often associated with Nazis, as more than 3,000 residents were involuntarily sterilized, according to a January 2009 document from the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society.

Eugenics is the process of selectively breeding humans and animals to get rid of undesirable characteristics.