Eugenic sterilization laws represented a nadir in American civil liberties.  In most states, mental patients – as well as epileptics – could be sterilized on the advice of medical practitioners, without input from a family member or guardian.  Many patients were merely told that they were having "an operation," and did not learn that they had been sterilized until later in life. (DNAi location: Chronicle > Trial of Carrie Buck > Outcome)

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