D**S
发帖数: 24887 | 1 Just one (more) dark page of American history that still haunts today. It
makes one almost shiver knowing these sorts of stuff.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJ6AloB4tUje4
NC panel: Sterilization victims should get $50K
By MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press – 5 hours ago
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — People sterilized against their will under a
discredited North Carolina state program should each be paid $50,000, a task
force voted Tuesday, marking the first time a state has moved to compensate
victims of a once-common public health practice called eugenics.
The panel recommended that the money go to verified, living victims,
including those who are alive now but may die before the lawmakers approve
any compensation. The Legislature must still approve any payments.
A task force report last year said 1,500 to 2,000 of those victims were
still alive, and the state has verified 72 victims. If the estimate is
correct, the payments could total around $100 million. Survivors will have
three years to apply for payments from the time a measure approving them
goes into effect.
"We have repeatedly acknowledged and stated as a task force that no amount
of money can adequately pay for the harm done to these citizens," panel
chairwoman Laura Gerald said. "We are not attempting through our work to
place a value on anyone's life. However, we are attempting to achieve a
level of financial compensation and other services that can provide
meaningful assistance to survivors
"Compensation also serves a collective purpose for the state and sends a
clear message that we in North Carolina are people who pay for our mistakes
and that we do not tolerate bureaucracies that trample on basic human rights
."
She said the task force was seeking a balance between the victims' needs and
political reality, noting that "compensation has been on the table now for
nearly 10 years, but the state has lacked the political will to do anything
other than offer an apology."
North Carolina is one of about a half-dozen states to apologize for past
eugenics programs, but it is alone in trying to put together a plan to
compensate victims. The task force recommendations also include that the
state continue to support the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims
Foundation; that the compensation be awarded so that it doesn't affect
victims' taxes or government services; and that mental health counseling be
offered.
The panel had discussed amounts between $20,000 and $50,000 per person, and
some victims and their family members had reacted angrily to the proposals
because they felt the amounts were too low. The panel had also considered
whether to compensate family members or descendants, but ultimately decided
not to.
On Tuesday, some survivors said they were simply looking forward to the
issue being resolved.
"I just want it to be over," said 57-year-old Elaine Riddick, who was
sterilized when she was 14 after she gave birth to a son who was the product
of rape. "You can't change anything. You just let go and let God."
Riddick, a constant presence at the task force meetings, said she was
surprised that the task force recommended $50,000 instead of $20,000.
Despite the potentially high price tag to compensate survivors during
uncertain budget times, there's bipartisan support to provide monetary
assistance. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue said during her 2008 campaign she
wanted to provide compensation and later formed the task force. Republican
House Speaker Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County has said the state should
agree next year to pay victims and wants to form a legislative committee to
work out details so something can be voted upon during the Legislature's
budget-adjusting session in May.
The five-person panel was appointed in March 2011 by Gov. Beverly Perdue and
included a judge, doctor, former journalist, historian and attorney
Eugenics programs gained popularity in the U.S. and other countries in the
early 1900s, but most abandoned those efforts after World War II because of
the association with Nazi Germany's program aimed at racial purity. More
than 30 states enacted laws authorizing surgical sterilization for certain
individuals, but not all of them carried the procedures out. More than 60,
000 people were forcibly sterilized around the country, and some historians
think thousands more were sterilized in states without official programs
under the authority of doctors or local officials.
Overt rationalization for the programs ranged from protecting the potential
offspring of mentally disabled parents to improving the overall health and
intellectual competence of the human race. Before the atrocities of World
War II, it was seen by many — both blacks and whites — as a legitimate
effort to improve society.
North Carolina's program stood out because it ramped up sterilizations after
World War II. About 70 percent of all North Carolina's sterilizations were
performed after the war, peaking in the 1950s, according to state records.
The state officially ended the program in 1977.
More than 7,600 were sterilized in North Carolina from 1929 to 1974.
A 1933 state law authorized the sterilization of people deemed to be "
mentally diseased, feebleminded or epileptic." People as young as 10 were
sterilized for reasons as minor as not getting along with schoolmates or
being promiscuous. Although officials obtained consent from patients or
their guardians, many did not comprehend what they were signing.
Melissa Hyatt of Kernersville, whose stepfather was sterilized, said the
task force "did what was reasonable as far as budgets and economy."
"It's not really about the money," she said. "It's about the suffering and
the pain."
Gerald, the chairwoman, urged the Legislature and Perdue to approve
compensation during this year's session. "Any state or group of people can
make a mistake, but it takes courage and strength of character to
acknowledge wrongs and try to right them," she said. |
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