Final Reflection Post

After reading the articles on sterilization in California, I was shocked. I had no idea that these kinds of procedures were still being forced on people even into the 1970s. I always thought of forced sterilization as a thing of the past. It is also saddening that it took so long for laws to be made that establish fair methods of acquiring consent. The law even had to emphasize that doctors needed to get consent, and cannot do the procedure without it. I found this ridiculous that doctors would abuse their power like that for the sake of their anti-immigrant and racist beliefs. They also would sterilize people in asylums or prisons that they believed had diseases that could be passed on genetically. Thus, society was aiming to create a perfect race, free from foreigners, uneducated people, mentally diseased individuals etc. This is one of numerous examples of the concept of white supremacy that we have encountered in this class.

I feel like this issue specifically approaches the events that happened during the Holocaust. In concentration camps, the Nazis would perform experimental medical procedures on Jewish people. They believed the Jewish race was not worthy of being in their society and thus used them in these experiments. Although sterilization is not as severe as what the Nazis did, it is on its way there if we let it continue. This is also an example of the subtle discrimination that it characteristic of our country. It was found that most of the sterilizations occurred to Latina women that were asked for consent right before or after labor, when they were not thinking clearly. They were also told that they would be cut off from welfare if they did not undergo this procedure. This type of discrimination, if we let it go too far, can evolve into a repetition of history. To me, it is unbelievable that these types of things still exist even though we have seen the consequences.