“Bipartisan” is all but a lost concept these days in Washington. So we applaud a current bipartisan effort that is for the best of causes.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined forces with Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware to author a bill to protect sterilization victims receiving compensation payments from cutbacks in federal benefits because of those payments. The measure has been approved by Congress and, when we went to press, was awaiting action from President Obama. We trust he will sign this important bill into law.
This protection is needed. North Carolina, the first state in the union to pay such compensation, has been followed by Virginia. We foresee a domino effect spreading to other states that had such programs. The Journal editorial board long fought for that compensation here, compensation Tillis and Democrat Larry Womble of Winston-Salem secured as a major part of their service in the state House.
Tillis is confident the president will take positive action on the bill. “This will be something the victims won’t have to worry about,” he told our editorial board last week.
The bill is co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Tim Kaine of Virginia, the Democratic candidate for vice president.
“The Treatment of Certain Payments in Eugenics Compensation Act will help protect living eugenics victims receiving compensation payments by excluding their payments from being used in determining eligibility for, or the amount of, federal safety net programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and SSI-Disabled,” according to a press release from the senators. “Without this legislation, eugenics victims who receive compensation payments could see their federal benefits reduced or even have their eligibility eliminated.”
The state of North Carolina forcibly sterilized more than 7,600 men, women and children from 1929 through 1974, ruling them mentally or physically unfit to reproduce, often on flimsy reasoning. In 2014, North Carolina issued the first checks to victims. They are now awaiting a third and final check that, it’s hoped, will bring their total amount of compensation to just above $45,000.
Passage of the federal legislation “caps off a long quest for justice for the victims of North Carolina’s shameful eugenics and sterilization program,” Tillis said. “I also hope this legislation will help raise the American public’s awareness of a dark and shameful chapter in our nation’s history.”
Other states should follow the justice road North Carolina pioneered. And as we confront the injustices of the past, we should also consider what injustices we might be committing today as bioethics struggles to keep up with rapid advances in biotechnology. Big questions loom, such as where is the line between gene therapy and gene enhancement. Such issues, both past and present, are best tackled when we come together.
The bipartisan, landmark push for compensation made by Tillis and Womble, followed with the bipartisan federal legislation, is a fine example of that.
— The Winston-Salem Journal