Quinacrine hydrochloride is a drug that was developed in the late 1920s to prevent and treat malaria. In recent years it has achieved notoriety as a female sterilization agent. As a result of a worldwide sterilization crusade, launched by American MD Elton Kessel and public health doctor Stephen Mumford, approximately 104,410 women in nineteen countries have already been subjected to quinacrine sterilizations.
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- Abnormal menstrual bleeding, backaches, fever, lower abdominal pain and headaches have also been reported. In addition, if the quinacrine sterilization is not properly performed, incomplete blockage of the fallopian tubes could occur, thereby causing an ectopic pregnancy - a life-threatening emergency, particularly in areas with no emergency medical facilities for surgery.
- Private funding from the Leland Fikes Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation have made it possible for Mumford and Kessel to provide quinacrine free of charge to researchers, clinicians, and government health agencies worldwide. Mumford and Kessel’s gifts of quinacrine are also made possible through the financial support of individuals such as Sarah G. Epstein and Donald Collins, both board members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative, anti-immigrant organization.
- Freedman, Alix. “Two Americans Export Chemical Sterilization to the Third World.” Wall Street Journal. June 18, 1998, A1.
- Ibid
- Robert Burt, The Suppressed Legacy of Nuremberg, Hastings Center Report 26: 30-33; Sept.-Oct. 1996.
