Eugenic Discrimination Remains

A woman in her 60s living in Miyagi Prefecture filed a lawsuit to Sendai Regional Court, in which she demanded Government of Japan ¥11 million of compensation for unwilling eugenic sterilization coerced by Eugenic Protection Law in 1948. Since the law has been reformed into Maternal Protection Law in 1996, dropping the provision for eugenic sterilization, the point for decision should be whether statute of limitation will be applied to the case.

According to the petition, the woman had a surgery of sterilization by tying oviduct isthmus up without her consent in December 1972, when she was age of 15. She had been diagnosed as hereditary imbecile. After the surgery, she suffered from uneasiness and pain, and was hospitalized in around 1987. Diagnosed as ovarian cyst, she had to extract her ovary, causing breaking off of marriage engagement with a man in her neighbor.

It became the first case for 16,475 patients of coercive eugenic sterilization in all over Japan. The woman argues that the government neglected necessary measures for the sufferers. Based on a statement of Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, who promised taking measures at the Diet in 2004, the plaintiff regards that the government had to start setting necessary measures at least as early as 2007 and statute of limitation would not be applied. She also indicates lack of implementation of the recommendation of an international human rights committee in 1998.

Eugenic Protection Law was legislated based on National Eugenic Law that had modeled on Sterilization Law of Nazis Germany. In the name of preventing birth of improper descendant, the law admitted sterilization surgery with unilateral decision of medical doctor without informed consent. The patient was obligated to report the fact of surgery to possible spouse.

An article of Mainichi Shimbun revealed that 52% of all 859 patients of eugenic sterilization in Miyagi Prefecture between 1963 and 1981 were at the age of 19 or younger. The youngest case was of a girl at her age of 9, who had least possibility of being pregnant. The most common reason was hereditary imbecile, which occupied 80% of all, followed by schizophrenia, complication of hereditary imbecile and epilepsy, and epilepsy.

Supporters of the plaintiff accuse Japanese government of their maintenance of eugenic thought. One of her relatives explained the reason of lawsuit as long-time agony of the sufferer and remaining social discrimination in Japan, questioning whom did Eugenic Protection Law try to protect. It is possible for other sufferers will file other lawsuits.