Welcome to the Eugenics to Newgenics website, where we share our ongoing research about disabled people’s access to sexuality, reproduction and family life.

We have conducted almost 100 interviews over the past years with eugenic and institutional survivors and with disabled people living in the community today. These interviews confirm that although the eugenic era is over, newgenics is a subtle but effective way of controlling the sexuality of disabled people.

Click any of the images (or ’tiles’) on the Eugenics to Newgenics home page, and you will find historical and factual information about each topic, along with photographs or archival materials, audio clips from research talks, or excerpts from some of the interviews. You will also find links to take you to further pages about each topic on the Eugenics to Newgenics website, or to other, relevant websites.

As we continue with the project, we will develop each ’tile’ by adding stories from the interviews. We will also continue to add information on historical and present-day policy, or about books, films and articles relating to both eugenics and newgenics.

Please keep checking back to keep up on changes to the website and the project.

Meanwhile, you can use this website to find information on:

• Defining eugenics and understanding eugenic practices in Alberta
• Defining newgenics and understanding how newgenic practices affect people with disabilities
• What ‘kinds’ of people were targets of eugenic practices and who is most at risk of newgenic surveillance and control today
• How certain families were scrutinized and became victims of eugenic practices
• How people with disabilities today face barriers building and maintaining families
• Past methods for controlling the sexuality of those deemed ‘unfit’
• Current methods of stigmatization and control over the sexual lives of people with disabilities
• How Alberta policy and law resulted in the sterilization of over 2800 people over 43 years
• How current policy and law continues to undermine disabled people’s consent, authority, and autonomy
• The segregation and isolation of people deemed ‘mentally defective’ and ‘genetically unfit’ in institutions such as Michener Centre
• Current methods of segregation and isolation in group homes, day programs, and sheltered workshops
• How people with disabilities succeed in the face of these challenges, in the past and today

You will also find useful resources (print, online, and media), as well as academic journal articles and books on eugenics and newgenics.

*All participant names on this website are pseudonyms.*