Zwangssterilisierung in Norwegen – eine wohlfahrtsstaatliche Politik in sozialdemokratischer Regie?

In the last decade a lively debate arose in the Scandinavian countries on their sterilization policy. Some monographs show that especially in Denmark and Sweden the social democratic governments favoured the sterilization of mentally handicapped and in particular socially disadvantaged persons regarding them as an obstacle in the construction of the welfare state. In this way, sterilization policy was seen as a part of the population and social policy. Analysing the sterilization practice in Norway from the 1930s to the 1970s this article comes to the conclusion that speaking about a conscious and consequently pursued policy of the social democratic governments seems not to be justified