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PRODID:-//University of Otago//Events Calendar//EN
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UID:https://www.otago.ac.nz/bioethics/news/past-events/bioethics-seminar-eugenic-sterilisation-in-new-zealand-the-mental-defectives-amendment-act-of-1928
URL:https://www.otago.ac.nz/bioethics/news/past-events/bioethics-seminar-eugenic-sterilisation-in-new-zealand-the-mental-defectives-amendment-act-of-1928
DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20180305T130000
DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20180305T140000
SUMMARY:Bioethics Seminar | Eugenic sterilisation in New Zealand: The Mental Defectives Amendment Act of 1928
DESCRIPTION:
Presented by Professor Hamish Spencer, Department of Zoology
In spite of New Zealand's reputation for being a social laboratory, the country was apparently ambivalent about embracing eugenics, notably never enacting an explicitly eugenic sterilisation law.  
Nevertheless, the 1928 Mental Defectives Amendment Bill originally contained a clause providing for sterilisation on eugenic grounds.  
I outline the history of the drafting of this clause and its subsequent failure to gain parliamentary approval, before suggesting possible reasons for this course of events.  
I note that this narrative must also explain how close the sterilisation clause came to being enacted.  
This closeness illustrates a general point, that the passage or failure of sterilisation legislation is an oversimplifying dichotomous view of different countries' eugenic histories. 


LOCATION:Bioethics Seminar Room, 71 Frederick Street
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