Page 49 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018
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influence in America and the family. Under the guise of noble
development of public policy. purpose, they created what became
terrifying places for a significant
People who were judged to be
segment of that society. That’s what we
“inconvenient” were separated from the
focus on in the book.
population so they would die out. They
theory was that if you kept them from This is the true story of Pennhurst. It’s
breeding, their undesirable traits not the Halloween fright night version.
wouldn’t be passed on. That’s how this There was enough horror in what really
whole program started. Pennhurst was happened there. A very deliberate
one of three hundred institutions program which included, in a number
around the country, developed for the of states, coercive sexual sterilization.
purpose. They would sterilize people before they
reached the age of puberty.
It grew through the era of the WWII
when it expanded and took on many That didn’t happen in Pennsylvania
more residents. None of these residents despite the fact that it was proposed as a
had the right to leave once they were law a half dozen times. However, in two
placed there. The atrocities that some of dozen other states, an estimate of fifty
them suffered were horrible. thousand people were sterilized against
their will. In a 1927 Supreme Court
These atrocities included medical
decision, Buck v. Bell, Oliver Wendell
experiments, psychological and sexual
Holmes stated, “Three generations of
abuse, as well as just overcrowding and
imbeciles is enough.”
ignoring people. Infants to adults were
segregated from mainstream society. That ruling is still on the books. It’s
never been repealed or altered. All of
TW: Infants?
this built through WWII. In the
Dennis: Yes, children. immediate post-war period, when
institutionalization was at its height, an
TW: Why?
anti-institutionalization movement
Dennis: The argument, that was began. Today we call it
championed by physicians and medical deinstitutionalization. It included
experts, was that these children would organizations like the Arc, which was
be better off in institutions. They founded following WWII. It included
wouldn’t be a burden on society or their
