Leilani Muir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leilani Marietta Muir (previously named Leilani Marie Scorah) (born July 15, 1944, in Calgary) was the first person to file a successful law suit against the province of Alberta, Canada for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta. Her case had, in turn, led to the initiation of several other subsequent class action suits against the province for wrongful sterilization.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Leilani’s childhood was a difficult one in which she was born into a family where she was largely unwanted. Having an often inebriated mother who at many times withheld food from her, Leilani reportedly maintained an average performance in school with the only alleged problem being that of her stealing food. As Leilani aged, her mother tried to find ways to remove her from the family. At the age of eight, Leilani was placed in the Midnapore Convent for a short-lived month by her mother. Then, in 1953, Leilani’s mother sent an application to the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives (a.k.a the Michener Center) in Red Deer, Alberta. At that time Leilani was rejected due to a high volume of patients, but she was later accepted on July 12, 1955, shortly before her 11th birthday. Leilani was accepted into the school solely on the basis of information provided from her mother, withhout any diagnostic testing. Yet, before Leilani could be accepted into PTS, one of the preconditions that had to be met was that of a signature from a guardian permitting the legal enforcement of compulsory sterilization. Under the name Harley Scorah, Leilani’s mother used her then boyfriend’s (future husband’s) name to agree to the sterilization of her daughter. Leilani saw her mother only intermittently over the years until her departure from the school at the age of 20.
[edit] Eugenics in action: The rise of the Sexual Sterilization Act in Alberta
Leilani’s sterilization came from a long chain of events that began in the 19th century. In the year 1883, Francis Galton, a cousin to Charles Darwin, coined the term “eugenics” (from the Greek eugenes meaning “good in birth”), but the concept had been around since the time of Plato. In essence, eugenics is a combination of applying Mendel’s laws of dominant and recessive genes and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to “improve the human stock”. It was believed many mental and behavioral traits, whether “inferior” or “superior”, were passed down from adults to their children and would continue to do so throughout evolutionary time. Those who were considered inferior were believed to be “unfit to breed” because the genes they contributed to the human gene pool would hinder the succession of a better human race. People considered inferior or damaging to the human race included: criminals, psychotics, lazy people, social degenerates, morons, inter-mixed races (African-Caucasian, Italian-Irish, Polish-Ukrainian, etc.), immigrants, Catholics, alcoholics, First Nations people, epileptics, unwed mothers, many poor people, and others.
The ways in which eugenics has been applied in various countries over time included such things as sterilization, castration, and homicide. Eugenics was first thought up in Britain and spread throughout Europe but made its way over to the United States and Canada. By 1907 the first eugenic sterilization law was enacted in the United States and in 1910 a Eugenics Committee of the American Breeders Association (ABA) and the Eugenics Records Office had been established. Both affiliations were largely influenced by Charles Davenport and Harry Laughlin, but both were headed by Davenport himself. By 1933, eugenics made its way back over to Europe in the rise of World War ІІ. The idea of eugenics greatly influenced Hitler, and he gathered information from both Canada and the United States about the sterilization procedure. He then aggressively applied methods of eugenics to anyone whom he deemed to be a degenerate, especially that of the Jews. After the impact of World War ІІ, utilization of sterilization and eugenic support began to die down in the United States and Britain.
However, in Alberta, Canada, the use of sterilization was far from coming to an end. The western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan were all influenced by eugenics but it was only in Alberta that a sterilization act had been vigorously implemented. In 1928, the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed and about 2,832 adults and children were sterilized in Alberta until its repeal in 1972. One of the largest advocates for sterilization that helped boost the initiation of the Sexual Sterilization Act was the first female magistrate of the British Empire, Emily Murphy. Under her influence, many Albertans, especially farmers who saw first hand what selective breeding can do in livestock, began to agree that eugenics was a positive thing. One of these people affected by Emily Murphy’s opinions was the Provincial Minister of Agriculture and Health, George Hoadley. Hoadley went on to call the first meeting of the Alberta Eugenics Board a year after the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed. The purpose of this board was to interview all people considered to be of inferior quality and to follow through with sterilization procedures accordingly. The three members of this group elected John M. MacEachran as chairman, a position he had held from 1929 to 1965. MacEachran was a huge figure in the maintaining and promoting of the sterilization of people who were considered to be degenerates in Alberta. Although all of the members of the Eugenics Board were collectively responsible for implementing most of the authorizations of sterilizations under the Sexual Sterilization Act up to 1972, MacEachran was present for every signed authorization of sterilization performed in Alberta until his death in 1965. He was also noted as being the founder of the psychology and philosophy department at the University of Alberta.
[edit] The sterilization of Leilani Muir
Two years and four months after Leilani had been at the Provincial Training Center, she was sent to meet with the Eugenics Board herself. However, before she would get to meet with members of the Board, she had to undergo an IQ exam. An IQ test was a major determinant for sterilization, and, since Leilani still had yet to complete one, she was brought to the Calgary Guidance Clinic to write an IQ test. Leilani scored an overall mark of 64. The Eugenics Board found this more than sufficient for grounds of sterilizing Leilani since an IQ score lower than 70 was considered to be of degraded intelligence. Although Leilani had received some education prior to admission into the PTS and also while she was in it, her performance on the IQ test was poor largely due to the fact that the education being taught at the PTS was designed for mentally deficient children. Because the IQ test itself was made for an average educated child, Leilani was at an obvious disadvantage because she lacked the proper education necessary to know many of the correct answers on the IQ exam. Upon meeting with members of the Eugenics Board, Leilani had been given the formal diagnosis of a “Mental Defective Moron”. She was ordered to be sterilized on the basis of her IQ score, her Irish-Polish background, her Catholic religion, her incapability of being able to uphold an intelligent parenthood, and the fact that she had shown definite interest in the opposite sex. On January 19, 1959, at the age of 14, Leilani received a bilateral salpingectomy (the destruction of the fallopian tubes). Leilani had been informed that she was undergoing surgery to have her appendix removed. Although this was true, and the doctors did remove Leilani’s appendix, Leilani was not informed that her appendectomy was to be accompanied with a sterilization procedure. It wouldn’t be until almost a decade later that she would find out the reason as to why she could not bear children.
[edit] Leilani’s case
When Leilani was 20, her mother showed up at the PTS stating that she wanted to take her daughter to dinner. Yet unbeknownst to the Superintendent, Leilani had been given an ultimatum by her mother to either leave with her that night and serve as her babysitter or be left to live out the rest of her life at The Provincial Training School. With little room for choice, Leilani obliged with her mother's ultimatum and departed without authorization. About 10 years later, Leilani had already experienced much independence in her life outside of the school which included such things as working as a waitress, baby-sitting, and two marriages. It was in Leilani’s first marriage that she found out she could not bear children. After years of trying to conceive and batteries of tests, a doctor had discovered her problem and informed her that she had been intentionally sterilized. Over the years, Leilani had tried to adopt but was denied because of the stigma of her being an ex-inmate at PTS. During her second marriage, Leilani became highly depressed and sought professional help in the year of 1989 while living in British Columbia. To determine if she would be a good prospect for group therapy, Leilani had been given an IQ test and scored 89. This mark surprised the doctor who administered the test, George Kurbatoff, who knew of Leilani’s background. It was not long after that Leilani came to the conclusion that her recent IQ exam proved that she was of normal intelligence and she sought to sue the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization. A few years later, Leilani brought her case to court on June 12, 1995 with the Honorable Madame Joanne B. Viet presiding. After over a period of 6 months of testimonials and hearing the life of Leilani Muir, Viet came to a decision. On January 25, 1996, Viet ruled in favor for Leilani Muir and was awarded damages in the amount of $740,780 and later $230,000 for legal costs. Viet proclaimed that “the province wrongfully surgically sterilized Ms. Muir” and the “particular type of confinement of which Ms. Muir was a victim resulted in many travesties to her young person: loss of liberty, loss of reputation, humiliation and disgrace; pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of normal developmental experiences, loss of civil rights, loss of contact with family and friends, [and] subjection to institutional discipline”. Since Leilani’s case, about 700 other people who were sterilized under the Sexual Sterilization Act were awarded damages when the filing of a class action suit was put forth against the government of Alberta outside of court for wrongful sterilization.
[edit] Leilani today
Leilani currently resides in rural Alberta with her three cats and Shih Tzu. She works part-time in the food industry and enjoys spending her free time with family, friends, pets and wild animals. Leilani is also in the process of writing an autobiography about her life which is set to come out some time in the near future.
[edit] Films
- “The Sterilization of Leilani Muir”. Produced by the North West Center, National Film Board of Canada. 1996. Montreal, Canada
[edit] Resources
- Buchanan, E. “Playing God with People’s Lives”. 1997. Genesis of Eden Diversity Encyclopedia [1]
- Wahlsten, D. “Leilani Muir versus the Philosopher King: Eugenics on trial in Alberta”. 1997. Genetica 99:185-198. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Netherlands
- Veit, J. (1996) Muir v. The Queen in Right of Alberta. Dominion Law Reports, 132(4th series): 695-762.
