2014 Winner: The Historic and Contemporary Use of Sterilization: A Method of State Control and Genocide

Project Information
The Historic and Contemporary Use of Sterilization: A Method of State Control and Genocide
Social Sciences
SOCY 240
This project studies how state institutions have used sterilization in the past and in the present to control citizens and citizen populations. I have used the Goffmanian theory of total institutions and the Foucauldian theory of Biopower to ground my paper. In this paper I have extended the definition of sterilization to include forms of temporary long-term birth control techniques such as the Depo-Provera shot when they are used by state officials against citizens without their consent. I have used the definition of genocide given by the United Nations in the 1948 in General Assembly Resolution 260 A (The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide) to define genocide in this paper.
I have focused the paper on four key case studies, two historic and two contemporary. These four are The United States during the Eugenics period, Germany during the rise of The Third Reich, the contemporary United States in California prisons (2013), and contemporary Israel in migration facilities (2013). I focus on three categorizations of people used by these countries to carry out sterilization, those of "imbecilic" peoples, "insane" peoples, and "criminalistic" peoples. The paper links these four case studies in ways that show how contemporary cases of sterilization closely mirror those of the past. The narratives put forth by these countries, both in the past and present, emphasizes "protection not punishment" as a justification for their crimes against their own citizens.
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Students
  • Sarah Megan Gray (Ten)
Mentors