On ethics, scientists, and democracy: Writing the history of eugenic sterilization

In the summer of 1997, a media storm broke out in Sweden. The front-page headline on August 20 of the Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden’s most influential newspapers, grabbed the attention of the country: Sweden had sterilized about 60,000 of her citizens-many by force.1 Even earlier, however, researchers had made the history of compulsory sterilization a topic of considerable interest. As the interest of the international media demonstrated, the practice of eugenics in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries has a history that casts long and compelling shadows.2