I don't have much to report today, as I'm going through a lot of documents and websites and trying to make sense of my diverse threads of thought, but I do want to welcome home, with heartfelt best wishes, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea. I remained extremely worried for these women, and even more so when news coverage ceased, and I am so glad they are safe.
To those of you using Laura and Euna's release as an excuse to play politics, to sing the predictable tune of 'We Lost By Capitulating,' you should be ashamed of yourselves. These women were facing a short, miserable lifetime in a totalitarian state's labor camp. Can you honestly say that the United States is in a weaker political position than they were before? What does it matter anyway? If these women had been men and soldiers, you would have spared no expense, given up any amount of political advantage over your enemy, to bring them home. But you remain inconsistent, dishonest hypocrites when the Americans in question are female journalists for Al Gore's network. There is no torment too harsh for you.
At any rate, all the best and a warm welcome to Laura & Euna. Thesis updates soon.
07 August 2009
04 August 2009
Getting to the heart of legislation
Click each image to see the clipped excerpt in Google Books.
The 1909 law:
The 1909 law:
From Remington's Compiled Statutes of Washington Annotated, 1922
And from Harry H. Laughlin's 1922 summary of U.S. eugenical legislation:
and
03 August 2009
I've got a lot of things in the hopper, buddy.
Amidst the accelerating graduate school anxiety ('I have to apply by when?' 'Schools in Canada cost how much?' 'It doesn't bode well for me that UW can afford to be so picky'), I'm on the hunt for a couple of key issues for my thesis. Well, one key issue and one somewhat irksome detail - the latter being the illustrious Dr. D.A. Nicholson of Seattle, who shows up in a lot of sterilization and parole reports, as well as being the doctor who examined Frances Farmer before she was a patie
nt at Western State Hospital in the 1940s; and the former being appendectomies being performed (or allegedly performed) during salpingectomies. This last issue caught my attention precisely because Doris Buck, Carrie Buck's sister, was sterilized without her knowledge during a supposed appendectomy. It was decades before she was told why she could never conceive a child. (Carrie Buck pictured at left)
A cursory search of the intertubes leads me to believe that, while sometimes the two procedures are performed concurrently in severe cases, it doesn't seem to me to be a normal procedure. As the appendix is very close to the right Fallopian tube, it appears that there are problems with one can affect the other (inflammation, masses), but I found nothing that stated that it was a procedure common enough that it would have been performed on at least three women at one hospital in less than a month. At any rate, I've written to Dave's mom to get an educated opinion.
This appendectomy/salpingectomy action is very important, as it could be the foundation for my argument. As of now, I don't really have much to report on - my thesis would merely be a summation of legislation and surgeries that were performed in accordance with that legislation. It may be interesting, but it's not a thesis. *sigh*
I'm not saying that I wish that at least three women, and likely many more, were sterilized under pretense of appendectomy. These women had enough to deal with as detailed in their patient records, and uninformed sterilization is a horrific tragedy triggering a lifetime of heartache. But if the evidence leads me to the conclusion that hospitals in Washington - as well as other in Virginia and other states - were sterilizing women without informed consent, it would be not only a better thesis but a story from history that I would be humbled to tell.
On Wednesday: We are making another trip to the Bellingham archives. Keep your lookin' balls locked on this picture box for more info on what we find and have already found.
nt at Western State Hospital in the 1940s; and the former being appendectomies being performed (or allegedly performed) during salpingectomies. This last issue caught my attention precisely because Doris Buck, Carrie Buck's sister, was sterilized without her knowledge during a supposed appendectomy. It was decades before she was told why she could never conceive a child. (Carrie Buck pictured at left)A cursory search of the intertubes leads me to believe that, while sometimes the two procedures are performed concurrently in severe cases, it doesn't seem to me to be a normal procedure. As the appendix is very close to the right Fallopian tube, it appears that there are problems with one can affect the other (inflammation, masses), but I found nothing that stated that it was a procedure common enough that it would have been performed on at least three women at one hospital in less than a month. At any rate, I've written to Dave's mom to get an educated opinion.
This appendectomy/salpingectomy action is very important, as it could be the foundation for my argument. As of now, I don't really have much to report on - my thesis would merely be a summation of legislation and surgeries that were performed in accordance with that legislation. It may be interesting, but it's not a thesis. *sigh*
I'm not saying that I wish that at least three women, and likely many more, were sterilized under pretense of appendectomy. These women had enough to deal with as detailed in their patient records, and uninformed sterilization is a horrific tragedy triggering a lifetime of heartache. But if the evidence leads me to the conclusion that hospitals in Washington - as well as other in Virginia and other states - were sterilizing women without informed consent, it would be not only a better thesis but a story from history that I would be humbled to tell.
On Wednesday: We are making another trip to the Bellingham archives. Keep your lookin' balls locked on this picture box for more info on what we find and have already found.
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