legal

Experts: Imprisoned and vulnerable should never be subjected to medical experimentation

Between 2006 and 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ordered doctors to perform tubal ligation surgeries on women who were deemed likely to become repeat offenders while they were pregnant, violating prison rules and a ban in California of forced sterilizations, according to a new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Dr. Matthew Butkus, a medical ethicist at McNeese State University; Dr. Danielle Lee, an evolutionary biologist and expert in the history of African-American interaction with science and medicine; Allen Hornblum, author of “Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison” and the recently published, “Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America;” and Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, chief legal and political correspondent with the Voice of Russia American Edition; to discuss the history of sterilization in the U.S. and how the Supreme Court has actually historically upheld the concept.

Part 1:

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Part 2 :

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To read the story by the Center for Investigating Reporting, click here.

To listen to our interview with the story’s reporter, click here.

From Emmett to Trayvon, cases of civil rights draw filmmaker’s attention

WASHINGTON (VOR) – For many, the trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man facing second-degree murder charges after shooting unarmed teen Trayvon Martin last year, has raised a number of questions, including on the issue of race and civil rights. Zimmerman has maintained that he shot Martin, who is African American, in self-defense. The case has garnered considerable attention from Keith Beauchamp, filmmaker and host of Investigation Discovery’s show “The Injustice Files,” who says that the trial, for the better, has been dissimilar from earlier cold case files of civil rights era murders he has investigated. Host Jamila Bey spoke with Beauchamp to discuss the Zimmerman trial and more.

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Rape Terminology Proves Challenging to Victims, Courts

Despite the FBI changing 80-year-old language in its crime codes to make it so that men could be victims of rape and the mandate to finding “force” to be necessary, many jurisdictions have not followed suit.

Depending upon where you live in the country, a sexually-based attack may or may not be called “rape,” and victims report that being unable to say legally they were victims of “rape” is hurtful in itself.

Host Jamila Bey spoke with Stephanie Hughes to discuss her story for Salon.com “When the law won’t call it rape” which details the language of laws describing sex crimes.