Abstract
From 1928 to 1934, about half of the two dozen women who were surgically sterilized while under the care of American doctors working with the International Grenfell Association (IGA) in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, were sterilized because they were deemed to be mentally unfit or substandard. These sterilizations coincided with rising concern about feebleminded persons and eugenic and legislative solutions across the United States, the British Empire, and beyond, but Newfoundland did not develop a eugenic movement nor did it enact laws to sanction surgical sterilization. What happened in St. Anthony was a result of the otherwise beneficial “Americanization” of the IGA.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the author(s), with Acadiensis being granted a non-exclusive licence to each and every right in the work throughout the world. After publication of the work, the author(s) shall have the right to self-archive the work and to reprint the work in whole or in part in books authored by or edited by the author(s) without the payment of any fee. In these other formats, however, the author or authors are required to acknowledge the original publication of the work in the pages of the journal. In the case of any requests to reprint the work, Acadiensis will require a standard permission fee -- to be divided equally between the journal and the author. In the event that such requests are received by the author(s), the author(s) shall direct such requests to the journal.