RESUMO
In the late 19th century, eugenics, a pseudo-scientific doctrine based on an erroneous interpretation of the laws of heredity, swept across the industrialised world. Academics and other influential figures who promoted it convinced political stakeholders to enact laws authorising the sterilisation of people seen as 'social misfits'. The earliest sterilisation Act was enforced in Indiana, in 1907; most states in the USA followed suit and so did several countries, with dissimilar political regimes. The end of the Second World War saw the suspension of Nazi legislation in Germany, including that regulating coerced sterilisation. The year 1945 should have been the endpoint of these inhuman practices but, in the early post-war period, the existing sterilisation Acts were suspended solely in Germany and Austria. Only much later did certain countries concerned - not Japan so far - officially acknowledge the human rights violations committed, issue apologies and develop reparation schemes for the victims' benefit.
Assuntos
Eugenia (Ciência)/história , Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido/história , Direitos Sexuais e Reprodutivos/história , Esterilização Involuntária/história , Canadá , Eugenia (Ciência)/legislação & jurisprudência , Feminino , Alemanha , História do Século XIX , História do Século XX , Humanos , Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido/ética , Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido/legislação & jurisprudência , Japão , Masculino , México , Socialismo Nacional/história , Direitos Sexuais e Reprodutivos/legislação & jurisprudência , Esterilização Involuntária/ética , Esterilização Involuntária/legislação & jurisprudência , Estados UnidosRESUMO
In the late nineteenth century, Mexican scientists became fixated on pelvic structure as an indicator of racial difference and hereditary worth. Forty years later, in his 1931 dissertation, medical student Gustavo Aldolfo Trangay proposed the implementation of a eugenic sterilization campaign in Mexico. He even reported performing clandestine sterilizations in public clinics, despite federal laws that prohibited doctors from doing so. Trangay reasoned that his patients were unfit for motherhood, and he claimed that their small pelvic cavities were a sign of biological inferiority. His focus on anatomical measurements--and especially pelvic measurements--was not novel in Mexico, but his work shows how doctors used nineteenth century racial science to rationalize eugenic sterilization.
Assuntos
Eugenia (Ciência)/história , Indígenas Norte-Americanos/história , Obstetrícia/história , Pelvimetria/história , Racismo/história , Esterilização Involuntária/história , Feminino , História do Século XIX , História do Século XX , Humanos , México , GravidezRESUMO
El presente artículo aborda el debate surgido entre médicos y abogados en torno a la eugenesia y a las posibles leyes de esterilización basadas en parámetros eugenésicos en Chile durante el período de 1933 a 1941. Se aborda críticamehnte la historiografía sobre la eugenesia en Chile, precisando sus limitaciones documentales y metodológicas. También se establecen precisiones conceptuales dentro del marco de la eugenesia y su contextualización dentro del espacio latinoamericano. En este sentido la tensión argumental entre médicos y abogados chilenos al respecto permite explicar por qué en Chile la eugenesia no pasó desde una dimensión discursiva a una legal. (AU)