sterilization

Three sterilization facilities in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties have been granted EPA exemptions to emit cancer-linked ethylene oxide.

“Eugenics, after all, implies the active removal of those thought to be inferior, either through sterilization or outright killing,” observed the veteran pseudoscience debunker David Gorski.

Robo said at least 10 more sterilization plants in California are governed by the ethylene oxide standards, and it’s likely that they have also applied for an exemption.

Eugenics movements in the U.S. often promoted the idea of “good genes” to encourage reproduction among white, able-bodied people while justifying the forced sterilization of others.

But some of the treatments considered cutting edge at the time, including forced sterilizations and lobotomies, came to be viewed as profoundly inhumane.