1) Forced sterilisation: a crime against humanity

This issue was raised by a case brought before the European Court of Human Rights by five of the 15’000 disabled women who, in France, were forced to undergo sterilisation operations. The case, known as Gauer and Others v. France, is still pending but, since the beginning, it has ignited a wider debate in France, especially because it is considered to be close to the very delicate issue of eugenetics. Whether it is the awful idea of selecting a “pure race” or an attempt to guarantee a “healthy society”, sterilisation surgically manipulates the species. In this particular case, reference is made to the freedom of disabled women to reproduce and have a family. And these are certainly human rights, as stated by the ECHR. However, these women have also the same right of other women to freely decide whether to become mothers or not. How can these two aspects be balanced, especially if it is considered legitimate to confer on the State, for public interest reasons, the same “right to decide” exercised by a woman who does not want to have an ill child?
The science of “good births” brings immediately back to mind the tragic events of Nazism during the Thirties in Germany. However, it is important to say that the U.S. was one of the first countries to practice sterilisation at the end of the XIX century.
Through the years, the diffusion of such a practice has not found geographical barriers and has involved, indeed, extremely different political and law systems, from liberal-democratic models to totalitarian regimes. As for Europe, the modern cases of forced sterilisation are not related to a racial reasons, but rather to the attempt to reduce the incidence of genetic and hereditary disease that the State would have to bear, increasing, therefore, its total health expenditure. In Sweden, between 1935 and 1976, around 230’000 disabled people were sterilised because they were thought to be carriers of diseases causing high social costs. Forced sterilisation in Sweden was abolished in 1976. The same paradigm characterised other countries as well, such as Denmark and Norway.
Today, the most critical aspect of this problem is that it tends to involve especially women suffering from mental disorders, for therapeutic or precautionary reasons. In Austria, for instance, 70% of these women were sterilised. And it is estimated that, in Italy, between 1985 and 1999 this practice involved at least 6’000 disabled women. But, on that matter, the data relating to France are really shocking and this situation needs to be better analysed, explained and, possibly, understood. This is what we will do in our next article, thanks to the support of an expert, Janina Arsenjeva, of the European Disability Forum.