Debate Over Sterilizing the Poor in Boston

Tessa Savicki, an unmarried mother of nine who collects welfare from the state, checked into Baystate Medical Center for a Caesarean section. Without her permission, the doctors tied her tubes. Now she’s suing. This has prompted 1,000 e-mails to BostonHerald.com, including these:

“Those doctors were true heroes. I knew she was a state-check-collecting waste of space,” reads one. “How long before we are paying for all her babies’ kids?” asks another. “Sterilize the whole family – I’ll pay.” And: “We should sterilize all the people on public assistance for more than two years.”

Full article on compulsory sterilization.

Comments (10)

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  1. Bruce says:

    I’m with the e-mailers. I’m glad her tubes were tied.

  2. Larry C. says:

    I’m with you, Bruce.

  3. Rod says:

    well by law it can’t be done without her permission,,, but it was good tho..alot of woman who do that just have children to get welfare..it is abuse of the system. i do agree..

  4. artk says:

    It sounds like the doctors have made her a rich women. Ask yourself, how much do you think you should get if a doctor sterilized you or your wife without permission? If you think she’s entitled to less because she’s on welfare, well I’m no expert, but I would wager no religion values a person based on their income.

  5. Tom H. says:

    artk: Suppose you were on the jury. How much would you award her? Knowing that if her tubes were not tied, she would keep right on having children that she cannot support and keep right on turning to you and other taxpayers for money.

    Sometimes when rights are violated there is very little social harm. There may even be a net social benefit.

  6. Vicki says:

    I bet she doesn’t collect a dime, unless the jury consists of other welfare mothers.

  7. Bart Ingles says:

    How much?

  8. Linda Gorman says:

    Society doesn’t have to take care of the kids, provide welfare, or otherwise subsidize this woman’s behavior. It chooses to do so.

    Saying that it is ok to cut into someone’s body without their permission and make an unalterable medical change because other people have voted to do something ought to send the hair up on the back of the neck of anyone who has studied how putative democracies slide into tyranny.

  9. Stephen C. says:

    Linda I assume the doctors made a mistake. The question is: what is the social cost of that mistake?
    Not very high, I would think.

    Now if this were offical government policy, that would be another matter.

  10. HENRY says:

    SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM STOP PAYING FOR IT AND LET THEM WORK OR GO WITHOUT AS BAD AS ILLEGALS, MORE BABIES MORE INCOME…IF THEY HAD NO SUPPORT THEYD WORK…IF IT CONTINUED AND THEY COULDNT AFFORD THEM LET THEM SUFFER