Indiana was the first government in the world to pass a eugenic sterilization law. The state sterilized twenty-five hundred people from 1907-to-1974. Indiana apologized for implementing the program earlier this year, on the 100th anniversary of its inception.

WFYI's Mary Hartnett takes a look at the program in a five part series, Indiana Eugenics.
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Eugenics Part One
Eugenics supporters believed they could improve society with sterilization and other progressive measures. Indiana enacted the first eugenic sterilization law a century ago. WFYI’s Mary Hartnett examines why the eugenics movement and how it became such a big part of Indiana’s health and welfare system, in the first part of a five part series on “Indiana Eugenics.”

Eugenics Part Two
In the second installment of the five part series “Indiana Eugenics” WFYI’s Mary Hartnett explores how the state created its sterilization program and the Supreme Court case that made sterilization legal, in the second installment of “Indiana Eugenics.”

Eugenics Part Three
Indiana apologized for more than 25-hundred Hoosiers on April 12th of this year. Since that apology, a lot of ethicists and historians have been taking a second look at the eugenic sterilization process.

In part three of a five part series “Indiana Eugenics,” WFYI’s Mary Hartnett takes a look at how the process worked and why the program finally ended in part three of “Indiana Eugenics.”

Eugenics Part Four
Indiana enforced a eugenic law that allowed institutions to sterilize the “mentally defective” until 1974. One woman sterilized by court order in 1971 is speaking up and telling her story. WFYI’s Mary Hartnett talks with Jamie Renae Coleman about her sterilization, the lawsuit she filed, and the effect it had on Indiana’s law governing sterilizations outside of institutions. It’s part four of the series “Indiana Eugenics.”

Eugenics Part Five
Indiana had a long-standing eugenic sterilization law in the 20th century. The “feebleminded” were put away and sterilized so they couldn’t have children that would weaken society. These days, a lot ethicists, scientists and sociologists say we are in a new eugenics era. In the last installment of her series on “Indiana Eugenics,“ WFYI’s Mary Hartnett reports on how in-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies may be a new kind of eugenics.