Legalised non-consensual sterilisation – eugenics put into practice before 1945, and the aftermath. Part 2: Europe

Abstract

This article deals with the nine European nations which legalised non-consensual sterilisation during the interwar years, thus completing the review, the first part of which was published in an earlier issue of this Journal. Like we did for North America, Japan and Mexico, countries concerned are addressed in chronological order, as practices in one of these influenced policies in others, involved later. For each, we assess the continuum of events up to the present time. The Swiss canton of Vaud was the first political entity in Europe to introduce a law on compulsory sterilisation of people with intellectual disability, in 1928. Vaud’s sterilisation Act aimed at safeguarding against the abusive performance of these procedures. The purpose of the laws enforced later in eight other European countries (all five Nordic countries; Germany and, after its annexation by the latter, Austria; Estonia) was, on the contrary, to effect the sterilisation of large numbers of people considered a burden to society. Between 1933 and 1939, from 36,000 to 400,000 residents (two-thirds of whom were women) were compulsorily sterilised in Nazi Germany. In Sweden, some 32,000 sterilisations carried out between 1935 and 1975 were involuntary. It might have been expected that after the Second World War ended and Nazi legislation was suspended in Germany and Austria, including that regulating coerced sterilisation, these inhuman practices would have been discontinued in all nations concerned; but this happened only decades later. More time still went by before the authorities in certain countries officially acknowledged the human rights violations committed, issued apologies and developed reparation schemes for the victims’ benefit.

摘要

本文涉及九个欧洲国家, 它们在两次世界大战期间将非自愿绝育合法化, 因此我们完整此综述, 其第一部分发表在本期刊的早期刊物中。就像我们在北美、日本和墨西哥所做的那样, 有关国家按时间顺序进行处理, 因为其中一个实践会影响后面涉及的其他政策。对于每一个, 我们评估至今为止的连续事件。瑞士沃州是1928年欧洲第一个颁布智力残疾人强制绝育法的政治实体。沃州的绝育法旨在防止这些程序的滥用行为, 后来在其他八个欧洲国家（所有五个北欧国家, 德国, 奥地利, 爱沙尼亚）执行此法律的目的, 正相反, 是对大量被认为对社会有负担的人进行绝育。1933年至1939年, 在纳粹德国3.6万至40万居民（其中三分之二为女性）被强制绝育。在瑞典, 1935年至1975年大约32,000次绝育是非自愿的。人们预计在第二次世界大战结束后, 纳粹的立法将在德国和奥地利暂停, 包括强制绝育, 这些不人道的做法将在所有有关国家停止, 但这发生在几十年后。在某些国家的当局正式承认所犯下的侵犯人权行为、向受害者道歉并制定赔偿计划之前还需要更多的时间。

Keywords:

• Europe
• eugenics
• forced
• history
• involuntary
• laws
• non-consensual
• sterilisation

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Corrigendum

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the article.