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(solemn piano music)
- Today, I am here to acknowledge a great wrong
that was done to more than 2,600 Oregonians
over a period of approximately 60 years:
forced sterilization in accordance with a policy
known as eugenics.
Between 1900 and 1925, Oregon was one of 33 states
that enacted to provide forced sterilization.
The Oregon law established a state board of eugenics.
The board's job was to decide which people should undergo
involuntary sterilization in the interest of promoting
a higher quality of human beings in succeeding generations.
That is a part of Oregon's history.
- [Narrator] In 1923, Oregon enacted a eugenics law
for the compulsory sterilization or even castration
of people deemed feeble-minded, insane,
epileptic, habitual criminals,
moral degenerates, and sexual perverts.
- Positive eugenics was the notion of having
the best examples of humanity match up and to have children
that carried on those paragons of virtue.
And then the negative eugenics
was keeping the misfits and the threats to social order,
keeping them from reproducing.
- The eugenics law eventually included terms
like antisocial behavior or sexual deviancy,
so this was a very wide net.
The use of eugenics as a so-called therapeutic tool
really meant that there were
some very horrible things that happened.
- [Narrator] Fairview Training Center
was the state's institution
for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
For decades, residents were required to be sterilized
before they could be released.
- I lived in Fairview from '65 to '72.
I was one of these people who got sterilized.
My dad and I had to sign a paper
that I did not understand until afterwards.
I did not have a choice.
Before people got to go out in the community from Fairview,
they would have to have a sterilization, every one of us.
- [Narrator] At least 2,500 Oregonians
were sterilized under the law.
The legislature finally revoked it in 1983.
- The time has come to apologize for public policies
that labeled people as defective.
To those who suffered, I say the people of Oregon are sorry.
- I felt good that he apologized.
(audience applauding)
(soft piano music)
- [Announcer] Support for Move to Include
comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
a private corporation funded by the American people.