The disturbing, forgotten history of America’s experiment with eugenics. In the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of men and women were sterilized at asylums and prisons across America. Believing that criminality and mental illness were inherited, state legislatures passed laws calling for the sterilization of “habitual criminals” and the “feebleminded.” But in 1936, inmates at Oklahoma’s McAlester prison refused to cooperate; a man named Jack Skinner was the first to come to trial. A colorful and heroic cast of characters—from the inmates themselves to their devoted, self-taught lawyer—would fight the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Only after Americans learned the extent of another large-scale eugenics project—in Nazi Germany—would the inmates triumph. Combining engrossing narrative with sharp legal analysis, Victoria F. Nourse explains the consequences of this landmark decision, still vital today—and reveals the stories of these forgotten men and women who fought for human dignity and the basic right to have a family.

A concise and gripping account of eugenics from its origins in the twentieth century and beyond.

This interdisciplinary project provides an informative, accessible, and comprehensive introduction to women's health. Emphasizing the perspectives of diverse groups of women, it addresses various biological, economic, social, environmental, and political factors that influence women's health and well-being. Women are more likely than men to experience mood disorders, certain types of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, arthritis, lupus, and celiac disease. In addition, women face significantly more barriers to health care than men due to a variety of social, economic, political, and environmental factors, including inequality, poverty, legislation, and pollution. Despite this, the field of women's and girls' health remains both understudied and underfunded. Women's Health: Understanding Issues and Influences explores important topics in the field of women's health in the early 21st century, offering readers a comprehensive and informative yet accessible introduction to women's health in the United States. While some topics are unique to women's health, others illustrate how women's health and women's experiences within the U.S. health care system are different from men's, as well as how certain health issues impact women differently than men. Entries have been crafted by a diverse team of contributors with wide-ranging expertise, and each entry features a collection of further readings and cross references to other relevant entries.

The Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence surveys feminist theoretical understandings of law, including liberal and radical feminism, as well as socialist, relational, intersectional, post-modern, and pro-sex and queer feminist legal theories.

Strategies or decisions aimed at affecting, in a manner considered to be positive, the genetic heritage of a child in the context of human reproduction are increasingly being accepted in contemporary society. As a result, unnerving similarities between earlier selection ideology so central to the discredited eugenic regimes of the 20th century and those now on offer suggest that a new era of eugenics has dawned. The time is ripe, therefore, for considering and evaluating from an ethical perspective both current and future selection practices. This inter-disciplinary volume blends research from embryology, genetics, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and history. In so doing, it constructs a thorough picture of the procedures emerging from today’s reproductive developments, including a rigorous ethical argumentation concerning the possible advantages and risks related to the new eugenics.