Racial and Gender Discrimination and Sterilization Essay

Racial and Gender Discrimination and Sterilization - Essay Example Eugenic sterilization is the process of performing forceful human sterilization on individuals who have been diagnosed with mental diseases or insanities such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, feeblemindedness, or epilepsy (Myerson, Ayer and Putnam 82–136). The main purpose of performing eugenic sterilization is to prevent the increase in the population of those individuals who have defective genes that can be inherited by their future children and who do not possess the self-control necessary to ensure children are not conceived. As an effective prevention method for unwanted pregnancies, the preservation of social standing of people who belong to upper- and middle-class families, and a permanent control over the rapid family growth of people in the lower-class societies (Revenel), men and women in the United States have been either given the option or forced to participate in one of two procedures – either tubal ligation (the cutting of fallopian tubes in women) or vasectomy (the cutting of vas deferens in men) since the 1900s (Myerson, Ayer and Putnam; Revenel). At the same time, it has been commonly reported that most African Americans experience racism and prejudice when it comes to receiving health care services throughout the United States (Benkert and Peters; Gamble; Krieger and Fee). To prove that gender and racial discrimination in forced human sterilization have existed since the early 1900s, a literature review will be gathered to examine the medical practices that took place in California and the United States during this time period. Based on the gathered evidence, it is expected to be discovered whether the controversy behind the issue of gender and racial discrimination in forced human sterilization still exists in the United States today.