What is voluntary sterilization? A health communication expert unpacks how a legacy of forced sterilization shapes doctor-patient conversations today

The term voluntary sterilization, referring to the choice to receive permanent birth control, arose as a contrast to the involuntary, or forced, sterilization that stems from the eugenics movement.

Elizabeth Hintz, Assistant Professor of Health Communication, University of Connecticut • conversation
Dec. 9, 2022 • ~9 min

Britney’s conservatorship is one example of how the legacy of eugenics in the US continues to affect the lives of disabled women

The legacy of eugenics is still active in the U.S. Paternalistic attitudes and policies on the reproductive agency of disabled people is one way it manifests.

Michaela Kathleen Curran, Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Health, University of Iowa • conversation
Oct. 1, 2021 • ~8 min

Francis Galton pioneered scientific advances in many fields – but also founded the racist pseudoscience of eugenics

Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to improve the species. Put into practice, Galton's concept proved discriminatory, damaging, even deadly.

Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University • conversation
Jan. 15, 2021 • ~9 min

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