Sterilisering som socialpolitisk åtgärd
En dokumentstudie om de föreställningar som bidrog till skapandet av ett socialt problem där sterilisering förespråkades som åtgärd.
In the year of 1935 Sweden started to apply the practice of their first sterilizing laws. In this thesis 2 sterilizing laws are considered. The laws regulated those individuals who were not considered appropriate for reproduction. The sterilizing laws themselves are based on several large investigative studies on how to evaluate and categorize different individuals. The purpose of my thesis is to examine through a literature study how these individuals considered for sterilization were valued and how social problems were created to fit the character features of these people. I also look at how sterilization became an acceptable method to deal with these constructed social problems. The materials I have studied include 3 pre-studies and the 2 laws about sterilization which were the result of these pre-studies. I found that the motives behind the sterilizations were social, economical and genomic hygienical. I also found that some fragments of the 2 sterilizing laws are also present in modern laws still in use today. In 1999 a new Swedish law was passed that regulated compensation for the individuals who hade previously been sterilized.