SACRAMENTO — It was a dark chapter in American history. For more than half a century, California and other states forcibly sterilized 60,000 mentally ill people as part of a misguided national campaign to eliminate crime, "feeblemindedness," alcoholism, poverty and other problems blamed for dragging society down.
On Tuesday, Gov. Gray Davis apologized, placing California in a small group of states that have issued formal regrets.
"To the victims and their families of this past injustice," Davis said in a statement, "the people of California are deeply sorry for the suffering you endured over the years. Our hearts are heavy for the pain caused by eugenics. It was a sad and regrettable chapter ... one that must never be repeated."
As eugenics was practiced in California and 31 other states at various times between 1909 and 1964, when it stopped, individuals considered defective included alcoholics, petty criminals, the poor, disabled and mentally ill.
About 20,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in an attempt to prevent their genes from being passed on to another generation.
Eugenics was intended to "clean up the gene pool," Paul Lombardo, an expert on the subject, said during a presentation at the Capitol only hours before Davis acted.
The policy was horribly misguided and resulted in the human rights of thousands being routinely violated by a coercive government with the support of the Supreme Court, said Lombardo, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
He spoke at a special California Senate hearing on eugenics and the history of mandatory sterilization of supposedly defective people.
Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego) said she intends to introduce a resolution that will express the Legislature's apology.
Davis issued the official regrets shortly after state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer apologized for one of his predecessors, Atty. Gen. Ulysses S. Webb, who enthusiastically supported forced sterilization as "enlightened" law free of legal "inhibitions." Webb served from 1903 until 1939.
Lockyer said it is never too late to apologize for the bigotry practiced against the disabled and others who were "seen as misfits of the time." He said the lessons of eugenics should not be lost in this era of cloning and genetic engineering advancements.
Lombardo said later that he was stunned that a gubernatorial apology from Davis would occur so quickly.
