# How is genocide defined, with an emphasis on cultural genocide? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 13, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-genocide-defined-with-an-emphasis-on-cultural-genocide/944198 "2021-06-13T23:23:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 209
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-genocide-defined-with-an-emphasis-on-cultural-genocide/944198/209 "2021-06-18T19:16:08Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > I was born in 1970… my 2nd oldest brother was forcibly sterilized ~1978 since he had mental health problems. In one of his lucid periods a decade later he railed against it happening. Being castrated… is leagues beyond getting a vasectomy. Not asked of him nor our mom (dad was passed by then). Just… done. > [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > That’s a terrible thing, but it was actually a common thing for people with mental health or developmental disorders in the 1970s, and that is not just on reservations. It is actually still commonly performed today, although now it is only done with informed consent of the parents/guardians. Sorry but this is a very ignorant and insulting thing to say, minorities were targeted and a lot of the excuses included also the reasoning that the minorities had mental issues too. Suffice to say, white people had a lot of doctors looking the other way if they had to apply the same mental issue reasoning to unwilling white patients. > **[Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States](https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/)** > > A shameful part of America’s history. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-genocide-defined-with-an-emphasis-on-cultural-genocide/944198)._