The State of Eugenics

The Story of Americans Sterilized Against Their Will

Between 1933 and 1974, North Carolina ran one of the most aggressive eugenics programs in the world, sterilizing more than 7,600 men, women and children.

One-by- one, they gathered the "unfit" -- the poor, the undesirables -- and took them aside. They began with the mothers and their daughters, sterilizing both parent and child to "protect" from unplanned pregnancies. They then continued with the girls and boys, surgically altering the children's reproductive systems to prevent them from having their own offspring. Eventually, tens of thousands of men, women, and children were either sterilized or "asexualized" against their will.

This film follows the journey of survivors, legislators and journalists who insist the state confront its role in the tragic, forced sterilization of thousands of Americans thought to have "undesirable" genetics. As survivors' stories unfold in the film, a new effort to atone for the wrongs done to them emerges-- monetary compensation. Welcome to THE STATE OF EUGENICS, where survivors are not forgotten and justice is a little more than an illusion.