Living with the Eugenic Past: Elaine Riddick
CONTENT NOTE: This interview includes discussion of rape, forced sterilisation and first-hand experience of state-sanctioned eugenic policies.
Hello, I’m Dr Kat Arney. This podcast is part of a miniseries of interviews with speakers from the 2022 annual conference of the Adelphi Genetics Forum - a learned society that aims to promote research and discussion concerning the scientific understanding of human heredity. Formerly known as the Galton Institute, and before that, the Eugenics Education Society, the society has changed its name to the Adelphi Genetics Forum to firmly reject and distance itself from the discredited and damaging ideas of its namesake, Francis Galton – widely viewed as the founder of eugenics.
This year’s conference, titled ‘Living with the Eugenic Past’, brought together expert speakers to grapple with the problem of how best to live with the eugenic past. What are the demands of justice when it comes to the victims of eugenics? How should universities and other institutions involved in eugenics deal responsibly with that involvement? And can present-day biology education and research be improved to help safeguard the future from the mistakes of the past?
Elaine Riddick – a Black woman who grew up in North Carolina - was kidnapped and raped and became pregnant at the age of just 13. Nine months later, in 1968, she was forcibly sterilised by the state without her knowledge during the process of having her son Tony, now a successful businessman. She was not the only one. Tens of thousands of people were sterilised in the US as a result of eugenic policies in the decades following the second world war. Today, Elaine is a steadfast campaigner for women’s rights, and is the Executive Director of the Rebecca Project for Justice, dedicated to protecting life, dignity and freedom for people in the US and Africa. I asked her to share her story.
Many thanks to Elaine Riddick. And you can find out more about her work at the Rebecca Project for Justice at rebeccaprojectjustice.org
You can find out more about the Adelphi Genetics Forum, including their grants, awards and publications, at adelphigenetics.org You can check out the rest of this series on the Genetics Unzipped podcast feed – just search for Genetics Unzipped on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This series was produced by the team at First Create The Media – that’s Kat Arney, Sally Le Page and Emma Werner, with help from Ed Prosser and Frankie Pike. Our music is Drops of H2O by J. Lang, licensed under Creative Commons. Thanks for listening, and goodbye.
