Privilege for the rich Duty for the poor

Dorothy Roberts' The Dark Side of Birth Control, follows birth control, (its usage, and public reception,) from its early days under the wing of Margaret Sanger and other proponents for women's rights, to its use throughout the Eugenics movement. This chapter from Robert's book Killing the Black Body, delineates the many reactions to and uses of birth control. We see it transition from an icon of female reproductive freedom, to a means of "negative" racial betterment. I found it interesting that it was only the combination of birth control and early "positive" Eugenics that created the mandatory sterilization of imbeciles. I assume the great stock placed in intellectual ability gave rise to the use of the word "imbecile" in reference to those not fit to reproduce. I am unaware of the origin of the IQ test, but I thought the whole idea of measuring moral worth with an intellectual test was ridiculous. However, in some cases it seemed even more arbitrary than IQ score. It seems to me that the term "imbecile" and the phrase "pronounced unimprovable" were just thrown around and used whenever deemed necessary, without any established criteria.

This chapter also brings to light the illogical point that educated people who, eugenically speaking, should reproduce practice birth control, while people who should not reproduce are either not educated on the matter or are "too reckless" to care. This predicament is partially due to the fact that, though the reception of birth control has changed over the years, part of it has always remained highly attractive to females looking to literally work "contra conception." This catch-22 reminds me of a movie (which I have never seen nor know the name of... I'll look into it) in which the so-called imbeciles populate the earth because the intellectuals do not think it is the proper time to have children (something along the lines of natural "disgenics", if you will).


And again, we see the repeated occurence of medical malpractice, whether it simply be lack of informed consent or legitimately deceptive measures. The general disregard for the Hippocratic Oath is rationalized by the belief of doctors that their decisions are ultimately "best" for their patients. This legitimizes removing the uterus during an appendectomy.