Re: Theos-World Sterilization of Indians in the U.S. 1972-76
Mar 17, 2006 04:17 AM
by Bart Lidofsky
Once again, irrelevant in terms of general falsifying of scientific
results, and once again very small compared to the evils of the Soviet
Union.
Bart
krsanna wrote:
Chuck -- I'll provide you with some accepted American "science" used
to justify atrocities and accepted at all levels in its day. In the
meantime, an introduction to 20th century policies.
Best regards,
Krsanna
http://www.dickshovel.com/IHSSterPol.html
A Look at the Indian Health Service
Policy of Sterilization, 1972-1976
by Charles R. England
The purpose of this article is to examine the reasons for and
results of the investigations prompted by physicians, tribal
leaders, and senators concerning allegations that the Indian Health
Service (IHS) was indiscriminately sterilizing Indian women across
the nation. This topic brings up several questions of morality,
ethics, and the law. These questions cannot help but be colored by
the culture and values that we are taught. So it is from this
perspective that we look at the sterilization policies and
philosophies that were at work within the IHS-PHS, Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) from 1972 to 1976. It was
during this period that the greatest number of Indian women were put
under the knife for a plethora of medical, social, and monetary
reasons.
This article consists of six categories which will: explore the
federal relationship with American Indian tribes; describe personal
accounts from women who were sterilized and their attitudes toward
family planning; explicate state and federal policies regarding
informed consent and sterilization; examine the contractual
relationship between IHS and private practices; consider the U.S.
General Accounting Office investigation of IHS sterilization
procedures; and examine the meaning behind the statistics of
population growth. Finally, it will analyze the historical relevance
of this topic to the model of internal colonialism under which the
U.S. government operates.
The federal trust relationship with American Indian tribes is based
on numerous treaty rights and agreements that include medical
services and physicians made available to Indians. However, there
are very few statements that mention medical services specifically;
instead, there is an implicit understanding of the trust
responsibility that includes the health of American Indians. As
stated in the American Indian Policy Review Commission's report on
Indian health: ...the federal responsibility to provide health
services to Indians has its roots in the unique moral, historical,
and treaty obligations of the federal government, no court has ever
ruled on the precise nature of that legal basis nor defined the
specific legal rights for Indians created by those obligations (in
American Indian Journal, 1977: 22-23). The implied meaning of health
care responsibilities is somewhat vague, but the treaties and
agreements were always meant to favor Indians.
In 1955, IHS was transferred from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
the Public Health Service (PHS). This move was made with the
expectation that the PHS could improve health care for Indians
living on reservations. Even after the transfer had taken place, the
health needs of Indians were still not adequately met. This was due
to the ambiguous nature of the federal government's responsibility
to provide health care. In turn, the IHS had no concrete goals or
objectives and operated day to day with only a faint clue as to how
it should render services.
To date, an Indian client will be given services that may well vary
each time that patient walks into an IHS facility: ...the specific
services available to him will vary from day-to-day and year-to-
year, depending on unpublished discretionary decisions made by
Indian Health Service officials and commitments and conditions
contained in often voluminous appropriation hearings (American
Indian Journal, 1977: 23). This quote suggests that the IHS system
is ripe for mismanagement of policies, funding, and staff
supervision. It will also come as no surprise to find that IHS has
been the subject of a number of investigations.
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