From the Winston-Salem [NC] Journal:

Proposed legislation that would give reparations to people who were sterilized under a state-sponsored eugenics program in North Carolina seemed in jeopardy as the state legislature prepared to begin its annual session.

With priorities focused on budget woes in a troubled economy, legislators said they were reluctant to commit $18 million of the state budget this year toward giving $20,000 to each of the 2,800 victims of the forced sterilization program.

House speaker Joe Hackney said “I thought the recommendations were reasonable, thoughtful. And I hope we can do it … I don’t know whether we can do the entire financial part in a year like this or not.”

See also:

Help for the victims -Winston-Salem Journal editorial. An excerpt:

At the very least, the legislature should finally follow through on recommendations that [former Gov. Mike] Easley approved five years ago. That means giving the victims treatment for the mental and physical ills left by their sterilizations, putting the story of this program in public-school textbooks and setting up a monument to the victims — so that the terrible mistakes of this program will never be repeated.

… This issue has been studied ad nauseam. Victims have told their stories over and over to legislators, reliving the pain each time. The General Assembly should finally help these victims when it convenes next month.

Se earlier posts here, here, here, and here.

From the Winston-Salem [NC] Journal:

RALEIGH – A legislative committee recommended yesterday that the state pay out financial reparations and give other benefits to victims who were sterilized under a state-sponsored eugenics program that lasted from 1929 to 1974.

The committee called for each living victim to be given $20,000.

“The state needs to take responsibility,” said state Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth.

“When the government starts sterilizing children, that’s about the worst thing I can think of,” Womble said. “I put it right up there with the Holocaust.”

The state of North Carolina performed forcible sterilizations on an estimated 7,600 people over 45 years, with the vast majority of the sterilizations occurring after 1945. Many of those people had intellectual disabilities or were mentally ill. It is estimated that some 2,800 of them are still alive.

Earlier posts start here .

From the Winston-Salem Journal and the Asheville Citizen-Times:

A phone line has been set up for people who believe they or a member of their family may have been sterilized through the North Carolina Eugenics Program between 1929 and 1974.

More than 7,600 North Carolinians were sterilized, many of them involuntarily, during the 45 years the program was active. The program sought to sterilize people who were classified as “feeble-minded” or “mentally diseased,” as well as those who were poor or black. The law that allowed for involuntary sterilization was not repealed until 2003.

A committee of state legislators is developing a plan for making amends to those who are still living, and will make recommendations for action by the state legislature in the 2009 legislative session. During her campaign, North Carolina governor-elect Beverly Perdue pledged to recognize and assist people who were victims of the involuntary sterilization program.

Earlier posts here.

Columnist Dominic Lawson, writing in the [UK] Independent, says the medical profession is biased in favor of ‘eugenic termination’ of fetuses with Down syndrome. Lawson’s 13-year-old daughter Domenica has Down syndrome. An excerpt:

[The anti-Down syndrome bias of the medical profession] is not based on a realistic and up-to-date assessment of the possibilities open to those with Down Syndrome, still less of the happiness which such people can and do bring to families and even communities as a whole: it is a function of the fact –- which is undeniable –- that people with Down Syndrome are likely to cost the NHS (National Health Service) more in subsequent medical treatment than a child without any disabilities.

… Yes, there are arguments about the quality of life a disabled child can have. The truth, however, is that a congenitally disabled person knows no other existence than that which he or she has: it is others who might deem their lives to be inadequate, not they. When I look at Domenica I see someone with a vast joy in just being alive, and I am indescribably happy that she is.

John Railey, writing in the Winston-Salem Journal, says North Carolina governor-elect Bev Perdue should make good on her promise to recognize and assist people who were victims of the state’s involuntary sterilization program.

The state sterilized more than 7,600 people between 1929 and 1974 as part of a eugenics program that sought to “better” society by preventing “feeble-minded” people from reproducing.

As she ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, Perdue promised to financially compensate the victims through a foundation, and indicated that she wanted to make the health-care and education benefits a reality.

… As the state’s first woman governor, Bev Perdue should show the rest of the world that North Carolina really is a progressive place by delivering the help that this state has long owed these victims. North Carolina won’t ever leave this dark chapter behind until that happens.

From USA Today:

A new book by legal historian Paul Lombardo of Georgia State University says scientists, officials and even her own lawyer conspired against Carrie Buck in the landmark legal case that bears her name, in an effort to justify Virginia’s compulsory sterilization of “feeble-minded” people.

The book, “Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell” analyzes the facts and personalities behind the 1927 legal case that has never been overturned.

Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes insisted that “three generations of imbeciles is enough,” and described Buck and her family as “manifestly unfit,” both physically and morally. Lombardo produces evidence, however, that Carrie Buck and her family were not imbeciles but were rather the targets of a eugenic agenda.

In the wake of the Buck v. Bell decision, Lombardo writes, about 30 states adopted involuntary sterilization laws, all based on the dishonest testimony and deceitful lawyering of Buck v. Bell.

It is estimated that 60,000 Americans were sterilized against their will in the first half of the 20th Century.

“Buck earns a place in the legal hall of shame not only because Holmes’ opinion was unnecessarily callous but also because it was based on deceit and betrayal,” writes Lombardo.

From ABC News:

Ethicists and Alzheimer’s advocacy groups are expressing outrage over a comment made by a British philosopher this week that people with dementia have a “duty to die” to minimize the burden they place on their families and society.

Baroness Mary Helen Warnock made the remarks in an interview with the Church of Scotland’s Life and Work magazine. “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives — your family’s lives — and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service,” she said. The comment echoed an article titled “A Duty to Die?” that she had written for a Norwegian periodical.

“We dispute the fact that if you have dementia or some part of Alzheimer’s that you cannot have a quality lifestyle,” noted Paul Williams, director of public policy for the Assisted Living Federation of America. “We’ve seen in the last 10 years that these residents have been able to have the most independence and the quality of life that can be expected of them. … Just because you have a memory disease [doesn't mean] that we let you die and we can kill you.”