I recently finished reading Audrey Clare Farley’s true history novel, on a situation of which has parallels to issues in our current day regarding an individual having sovereignty over his/her own body and health. This is the story of young high society lady, who had medical treatment done unto her without her permission, and without her knowledge. This medical procedure was forced on Ann her by her mother and physicians who thought it was best for her (and for “the greater good”), in their own opinions.
In the case of Ann Cooper Hewitt, these people determined she should be sterilized through surgery, from ever being able to become pregnant. Once Ann woke up from what she thought was an appendectomy, she discovered through hushed whispers of the nurses, and by the location of her scars, that she had been tricked into salpingectomy surgery (having her Fallopian tubes cut and knotted off).
Ann was a bright young lady, and she was quite intelligent like her father, Peter Cooper Hewitt, who was a famous inventor. However, as a young girl her villain-mother would treat her cruel and tell everyone she was feeble-minded. She would treat her like she was very sickly, and dumb, and she would encourage others to do so too. It was in the mother’s interests to create a story that her daughter was very ill and feeble-minded, as that way she could funnel money from her daughter’s trust to herself in the guise of needing money to pay for the girl’s health issues. Ann’s father who had passed away, left a large inheritance to Ann. However, there was a clause that if Ann never had a child, a great deal of money was to go back to her mother. Now you can see how the plot thickens!
Ann’s mother worked with corrupt doctors to give her intelligence tests which were rigged and totally phony, in order that they could say Ann was not fit for motherhood, and thus a forced medical treatment should be warranted. This book also explores the dark history of eugenics within the United States (and Nazi Germany), and how it was used by those of a certain mindset to press for forced sterilization of specific populations. If you are not already researched in this, you may be interested to know the Rockafellers and Kelloggs were heavily involved in promoting eugenics. They did awful things to minority communities. I often wonder about eugenicists today. What are they up to, and what do they want? These eugenicists never really go away. This was a page turning, true story and it helped me learn more about the past actions of American eugenicists. Purchase here: The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt
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