Read
the informational pieces below and discuss the issue of reproductive
control including ethical considerations of mandatory sterilization
policies.
Due October 1, 2012
Uzbek women allege forced sterilization - Salon (07/19/2010)
Social origins of eugenics - Paul Lombardo, UVA
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15 comments:
I do not think that it is ethical to sterilize any person without their knowledge and consent. Nobody has the right to mutilate someone elses body. The ability to have children is a gift and nobody gets to decide when to take that away from another person.
I think that it is a good option for a lot of people who choose to have the procedure done but it shouldn't ever be forced upon another person.
I can't imagine taking that ability away from me without my consent. I can't imagine how violated and angry these women must feel after having this procedure done to them without their permission.
Chelsea Holgate
I do not agree with sterilizing a person without their consent. Every person who is able to have children should have a say in the decision. The women that were sterilized without knowing were violated. In cases where someone is deemed unfit as in the cases mentioned about people that were mentally disabled or criminals, I can see where the officials may have been coming from, but it is still wrong. I think that it can be dangerous for people who are mentally ill to have children because of risks to the child and the parent depending on the severity of the mental problems. As for sterilizing criminals for stealing, that is just extreme measures and is also wrong. If a person is able to have a child and care for it and themselves in an acceptable way, I think that their right to do so should not be taken from them.
I believe that sterilization without the consent of the patient is unethical. No matter what reason you have, you cannot take that away from anyone. In the case of forceably sterilizing a man or women it is violating or constitutional rights.
In the Uzbek womens case she had a strict government leader. She was not asked or told just bruttaly sterilized. She had just barely had a son and planned on having more kids. I don't see how someone couldn't see that as unethical.
In the case for the U.S. its unbelievable that the courts would allow the sterilizations. Yes, the people were either handicapped or criminals but still they have rights to their reproductive system and everything they did violated those rights. It stunned me to see the vast amount of citizens forceably sterilized.
I believe that reproduction is a God given gift and no person has the right to take that away.
Evan McFarland
October 1, 2012 12:15 PM
To render someone sterile and take away their ability to procreate without their consent is, to me, extremely unethical. This is another example of the government, or a group of people, trying to control something that should be thought of as a personal and private matter.
I can understand that some countries, especially the more poverty stricken ones, want to control the population. They have difficulty providing for the people of their countries all ready and more births just add to the burden. I suppose that they assume that if they control the population they can better manage their resources. They can lessen the amount of children orphaned or the money that it cost to tend to those children that are orphaned. The cost of birth is also expensive, most parents in 3rd world countries cannot afford this cost and it becomes the responsibility of the government. Also space and pollution is a factor- the more people born the more homes that are needed and the more pollution created.
The article that I find most bothersome is the one on Eugenics.I do not find one thing about this to be ethical. If anything it seems vain and ignorant to me. The world is made of vast space and vast population, and we all have vast differences and characteristics. If you take things away because they are not considered to be inheritably desirable traits, then the world, to me, seems as though it would become very monotonous.
No matter what the excuse being used is, whether it’s for “population control” or to prevent the creation of children that are thought to be “insufficient” or may be deformed in some way-it is wrong. No one has the right to tell a person if they should bear children or not, or how many they can bear. No one has the right to regulate how big a family is or what a family looks like -especially since it’s not their family to begin with.
I wonder if the persons that create these laws have to abide by them as well. Do they have to have their family’s medical history checked to see if they are of the "desirable" bunch? Do they all agree that if they are allowed to bear a child, or children, how many they can have? If they thought that there was a slight chance that they may conceive a child that is less than genetically perfect would they voluntarily lie on the operation table and be sterilized? To be honest, I don’t believe that the answer to any of these questions is “yes”.
Read the informational pieces below and discuss the issue of reproductive control including ethical considerations of mandatory sterilization policies.
Many issues involving reproductive control are constantly being brought up in many parts of the world. Especially when it involves women from Uzbek. I don't find it ethical for doctors and nurses to force sterilization on women without there consent. Doctors and Nurses are forced to try to get women sterilized so they wont be able to reproduce as much, in order to reduce birthrate. One lady that was mentioned in this article stated that she didn’t like the fact that the Doctor didn’t ask for her opinion. He just sterilized her without asking, which made her feel like she wasn’t important. In this case, she just felt that it wasn’t right for them to do a procedure without letting her know. All in all, one needs to know whats going on with their body because people are the owners of their body. In any case, its wasn’t the fault of the Doctors and Nurses to enforce this,it was mainly the governments because if the Doctors and Nurses didn’t do this, they would be threatened with salary cuts. This also causes an issue because then Doctors and Nurses are pressured and are willing to do anything to keep their pay rate. Especially when it comes to people that work in poor countries. In another case, a women said that a Nurse told her that if she didn’t comply with the sterilization procedure, the government would hang the Nurse. What kind of brutality is this. If I were in this situation, I wouldn’t want a Nurse to die because of my decision. I understand that the government is trying to enforce the reduction of birthrate, but why do it in a brutal manner to were people feel pressured about it, or scared. The article also mentioned that the most women that were greatly targeted were women that have HIV, TB or suffer from drug addiction. Even though these women suffer from this, they are human to, and deserve to be treated the same as other healthier women.
In addition, the other article, Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement, also stated some issues that involved sterilization. In this case a 17 year old girl was the first girl to be sterilized. In any case, many believed that this girl wasn’t fully normal because the mother had been a resident at an Asylum. Once this girl had a baby, they ran tests and concluded that her baby wasn’t quite as normal. Therefore, they wanted to sterilize this girl because it was predicted that all her future kids would be this way. This is were the idea of sterilizing people with deficiencies came along because people didn't want to deal with generations of “imbeciles.” This is were the idea of involuntary sterilization came along. I believe that no one has the right to be sterilized without being notified, weather they are normal or not. I’m not against the sterilization, just the fact on how the government has handled it. Therefore, for sterilization to be mandatory is out of the questions because If a person wants to have a child regardless of how they are, then its their right to have it. On the other hand if a person doesn’t want to have children with deficiencies and sterilization is the solution for them, then so be it. It all depends on all the different situations that can occur. It just shouldn’t be forced.
Stephanie Galaviz
I find sterilization without consent to be unethical, to both men and women. If a man & his wife wish to have children, but cannot because of forced sterilization, they have been robbed of a dream that they had.
Though I can understand where mandatory procedures could be necessary, I still find it unethical. However, there are two sides to that coin. If a family cannot afford children, or another child, an unplanned pregnancy could cause poverty & hardships for the family, and in extreme cases, death of the newborn child. I believe that a woman should have a choice to sterilize herself, though, and should not be forced to.
"It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…Three generations of imbeciles are enough." I found this quote shallow, demeaning, and offending. Not every mental disorder is hereditary, and stupidity is one that is not. The thing I found most demeaning is that neither of these articles mentions men once in the dilemma of having children. It takes two to Tango to make a child in the first place, so why don't governments start sterilizing men without their consent? I realize that both have been done in the past, however, it has always been largely women who are being sterilized forcibly.
Either way, it is unethical. Sterilization should be a choice, regardless of if you are male, female, or whatever else you choose to be. It should not be forced.
The two articles provided for reading give two different points. In the first article, sterilization is being done for women who have been involved with drugs, have a disease or who already have a child. According to the government one of their main concerns is to relieve some of the monetary debt, which to me is ludicrous. Not only is the reasoning behind this is insane but they are sterilizing the women without consent. This is absolutely unethical. No person either man or woman should have to go through such thing. They are many ways to address such issues but doing it without consent is not the best one. Especially in the modern era we live in today.
In the second article, it explains that sterilization has been done, also involuntarily, to those who have known to have some sort of a mental disease. Although also unethical, I can see where they were going with it. I have worked in a place where people with mental issues were treated, and most of them based on just what I’ve seen should not be having children. And just like the rest of us they fall in love and want to start having children but some of them are not even capable to take care of themselves. Their illness takes over and then tragedy happens. I think they should go about it in a different way and not by treating people like a thing.
I think everyone should have their own choice in regards to whether they should have any children and how many unless it is not putting the child or others in danger.
After reading about forced sterilization I came to the conclusion that forced sterilization is the most unethical thing you can do to someone. I have never read about situations like that. It is scary to know that people will go to such extremes and do something like to someone else. Everyone should haave the right to chose what happens with there body. No one should be able to take away the right to have children. That is something that emotionally can break someone down. Sterilization is an important decision that someone has to think about very carefully. Everybody has there rights and something big like that should be taken very seriously. I would never wish this on anyone and my heart goes out to the victims of this tragic event. Birth control has to be handled differently and in a manner that is equal and fair. Also to go and aim for poor women that have health condiions is just not right. This to me is just people being ignorant and making stupid decisions. I am completely against this in everyway possible.
The Government does not have the right to sterilize anyone. The idea of social cleansing, preventing the poor from having children, etc, does not stop where you or I want; today it's the poor and feeble-minded,tomorrow it's left-handed people, or someone who stutters, or people with green eyes.Who has the right to choose who among us is
best? Is it the physically strong, a person with superior will, or the intellectual prodigy?
For instance, ‘mental illness’ is a pretty flexible term, and, in the eugenics era, was used to edge a lot of people out of the parenting sweepstakes. Epilepsy was considered a mental illness back then, as was ‘hysteria’ (which doesn’t really exist.) There was also the term ‘feeble-minded’ which was all too often used to define those who simply liked the opposite sex too much and wanted to get married in a leisurely fashion.
It’s one thing to look at your own genetic history or your personal history and decide reproduction isn’t for you- that’s fine, it is a personal decision. But it’s quite another thing to call for sterilization of everybody who has brains that run on a different wavelength, who doesn’t have enough money right now, who’s in poor health or physically disabled, or is a carrier of a recessive lethal who had the misfortune of marrying another carrier.
They should be allowed to make their own decisions, and deserve to be supported even if their decision isn’t what the government would like it to be.
I believe the sterilization of a person should solely remain the choice of the actual person themselves. I do not find the sterilization of a person without their consent is ethical in any way.
With the case of the teenager situation, genetics are not a complete conclusion as to whether the newborn would hold those traits. I feel this choice to sterilize without consent is very unconstitutional. I think more form of birth control or more awareness should be introduced.
As far as other countries and their beliefs, those too are to me unethical. The matter of the country and their population worries does not lie on one person’s shoulders as to whether she can procreate or not.
I do not think it is right at all to sterilize someone without their permission. No woman should ever be forced to do such a horrific thing. Having children is a special thing and there are many woman out there that dream of having a child. That is one thing that should never be forcefully taken away.
Ashley Nechanicky
It is unethical for a government or state or even a country to be able to choose whether we are sterilized or not sterilized. We should have the right to choose what happens to our bodies. The nurse who lied to the patient to get her to go through with the procedure was totally unethical because our patient should trust use. If they can’t trust us why should they want to come to us when they really need us? The people in the medical field should be the ones that have our best interest at heart. If people are able to make their own decision that should not be taken away from them. The people that did this kind of sterilization passed a law so no malpractice law suits could be made. That alone shows that they know this is unethical. As far as the handy cap or disabled they should get to choose and if they can’t there family or guardian should get to make that chose because they have their best5 interest at heart. The way it should be. Our government, state, and country’s only see the outside picture they don’t know everything that is needed to make that decision. Cause a girl who had a baby would have not been sterilize because they would have figured out by her school grades and life style just because her mom was crazy didn’t mean she was and it was proven after it was too late. It should also not be used as a population control or change society by sterilizing certain types of people like the poor
I have mixed feelings about this. I do believe in sterilization when a person is completely incapable of taking care of their child. I don’t believe it is ethical to sterilize someone without their knowledge, however, I do believe that it is ethical when the person is unable to make the right choice on their own. For example, a woman addicted to heroin that is HIV positive should not be having children, even if that woman thinks she can and wants to. I believe she should be sterilized without her knowledge. Other than extreme factors like in my example, it should never happen without the person’s knowledge.
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