Against Their Will: North Carolina's Sterilization Program and the campaign for reparations
Readers see what happens when medical decisions are made without informed consent by bureaucracies using faulty, biased science. An important, heartbreaking addition to writings on medical ethics and the history of medicine. ---Library Journal, March 9, 2012The Winston-Salem Journal ran a series of articles on eugenics, prompting official apologies and initial legislative efforts aimed at compensating victims. ---New York Times, Dec. 9, 2011These articles raised awareness about the modern eugenics program, revealing its workings, the lasting pain of its victims, and even speculating upon how genetic testing could lead to new forms of eugenics. Now as North Carolina is about to pay reparations to those who suffered from forced sterilization, their story is both chilling and an invaluable lesson in state abuse of power that must be remembered, lest it be repeated. A must-have for social issues collections, Against Their Will is highly recommended. ---Midwest Book Review, March 2, 2012