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Maternal Mortality, Population Control, and the War in Women’s Wombs: A Bioethical Analysis of Quinacrine Sterilizations

DifferenTakes Series
17 ~ Reproductive Technologies
[PDF Version]
By Judith A. M. Scully

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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.

Judith A. M. Scully is an Associate Professor of Law at West Virginia University College of Law and a core committee member of the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment. This article is a condensed version of her article published in the Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2, Spring 2001.