Putting the “You” Back in Eugenics: Part 1

In this first episode in a new podcast series, the Triple Vision team tackles the difficult issue of eugenics. Eugenics as it was practiced in Second World War Germany is very well known, but in today’s podcast Triple Vision starts to peel back the layers of how eugenics was practiced in Canada from its very origins until today. You will hear stories from three blind and visually impaired women about their own experiences, where they were subjected to the practice of eugenics by the medical profession. Then, we talk to Dr. Bonnie Lashewicz, of the University of Calgary, about the links between colonialism and eugenics. She will present you with some surprising examples of eugenics thinking of today. “We went for genetic counselling, not really questioning what was really going on there. This counsellor told us, without ever taking any samples from us at all, that if we were to have a child, it would probably come out like 'The Elephant Man,' all distorted and disabled. As a result, we talked about it and decided not to have children. But when I look back on that now I think, 'Wow, they didn’t even take a sample or anything from us.' And based on no scientific evidence at all they told us not to have children. I think, 'How did I accept that so readily?' And It was just because it came from the medical profession. I didn’t recognize it as eugenics then, but that’s what it was.”