India mass sterilisation: women were ‘forced’ into camps, say relatives

Relatives of the 12 women who died after a state-run mass sterilisation campaign in India went horribly wrong have told local media they were forced by health workers to attend the camp. More than 80 women underwent surgery for laparoscopic tubectomies at a free government-run camp in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. About 60 fell ill shortly afterwards, officials said. At least 14 were in a very serious condition by Wednesday and the death toll was expected to rise.

“The [health workers] said nothing would happen, it was a minor operation. They herded them like cattle,” Mahesh Suryavanshi, the brother-in-law of one casualty, told the Indian Express newspaper. Such camps are held regularly across India as part of a long-running effort to control population growth. Four doctors and officials have been suspended and police have registered a criminal complaint. “It was a serious matter of negligence. It was unfortunate,” said Raman Singh, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh.

More at The Guardian

Australian billionaire calls for sterilization of the poor

Conservative billionaire Gina Rinehart called for the sterilization of the poor today, arguing that the only way to alleviate poverty is to stop the "underclasses" from multiplying. In a video uploaded to her official YouTube account, the Australian mining heiress said that income inequality is caused by differences in intelligence, and eugenics is the only answer.

"Our nation faces a grave economic crisis as the combination of a strong Australian dollar and falling commodity prices sap our ability to compete globally," she explained, "the only logical solution to this crisis is to strengthen the quality of our most precious resource: human capital.

"I believe that any couple making less than $100,000 a year should be forcibly sterilized through a vasectomy or fallopian tubal ligation. Those earning more than $100,000 a year should be encouraged to have as many as 10 or 12 children.

Rinehart is the richest person in Australia and ranks as one of the wealthiest women in the world. Most of her fortune comes from a mining company she inherited from her father and later built into a leading exporter of iron ore.

The Daily Currant

Sterilisation: North Carolina grapples with legacy

More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children. Now, decades on, one state is considering compensation.

In 1968, Elaine Riddick was raped by a neighbour who threatened to kill her if she told what happened. She was 13, the daughter of violent and abusive parents in the desperately poor country town of Winfall, in the US state of North Carolina. While she was in hospital giving birth, the state violated her a second time, she says.

A social worker who had deemed her "feeble-minded" petitioned the state Eugenics Board to have her sterilised. Officials coerced her illiterate grandmother into signing an "x" on an authorisation form. After performing a Caesarean section, doctors sterilised her "just like cutting a hog", she says.

Full story on BBC News

More about forced sterilization (in other countries) on Wikipedia