A new podcast documents the story of one of the more than 250 people who were sterilized in Vermont under a state law aimed at preventing certain people from having children.
Ivor Devino was a musician who played the guitar and sang in Rutland and had a weekly radio show. He was also blind, and suffered from seizures. The documentary raises the possibility that he had syphilis, contracted from his mother.
In 1938, Devino traveled from Brandon to a Burlington hospital for a relatively new surgery at the time: a vasectomy. That鈥檚 after he, his uncle, and several doctors signed a document saying 鈥渢he public welfare will be improved if such person is sterilized." The procedure followed a
The story grapples with the murkiness of how the law was used: It allowed for access to a form of birth control when contraception was not widely available. It also enabled medical professionals to coerce patients into getting surgeries they might not have wanted, during a time when the debunked theory of eugenics was still mainstream 鈥� the belief that "degeneracy" could be inherited.
鈥淲hen all of these sterilizations are supposedly voluntary, it鈥檚 really complicated,鈥� said Jules Lees, an educator from South Burlington and one of the creators of the documentary, along with Richard Witting, a researcher in Burlington.
They aired the podcast to a small crowd in Brandon鈥檚 town hall this weekend. The town was home to a school that , run by the state until the 1990s. Several people institutionalized there were sterilized under the 1931 law.
Relatives of Devino said they knew his story, but for others, it added a more personal understanding to the impact of the eugenics movement in the state.
鈥淚t was this well-intended, supposedly progressive movement that was supposed to do something positive for society, but was used very negatively to hurt a lot of people,鈥� said Steven Thomas, of Brandon, who saw a sign for the event while walking his dog.
鈥淪eeing the actual people that were harmed and their lives, and how that affected them, I was really interested in that.鈥�
That鈥檚 what Witting, who at the University of Vermont, was interested in too.
鈥淗ow do you really know who it targeted, who it harmed, unless you actually get down to the individual level to see who they were?鈥� he said.
Lees, who has taught the history of the eugenics movement in Vermont as a middle school teacher, wanted to make the stories of people like Devino more accessible.
鈥淏y focusing on those individuals, it really changed what I understood. And I felt like that was important to be out there for the public, for educators, for anyone who wants to learn about eugenics in Vermont,鈥� she said.
They learned Devino鈥檚 life had a tragic end 鈥� a few years after the surgery and getting married, he died by suicide at the age of 24.
Lees and Witting are now working on a second episode, about women institutionalized in Rutland.
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