Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

    "Someone should do something" is a common refrain in a world where conflict, terrorism, discrimination and economic hardships prevail.  Whether the "someone" is the government, the police, parents, politicians or teachers the "something" that they should do is not quite certain.  Clearly, finding a solution is age old problem.  Jonathan Swift satirically suggested in his essay "A Modest Proposal" that the children of the poor should be eaten to solve the crisis of famine in Ireland in the early 18th century.  Obviously, this proposal was extreme but it highlighted the impotence of people to really solve huge issues.  So what should we do?  Throughout history there have been attempts to do something to control social issues but usually these programs have had horrific results.  Diane Chamberlain in her book, Necessary Lies, exposed a real life scenario that was in effect for many decades.  A law was written to lesson the burden of caring for institutionalized patients by allowing for their sterilization.  In North Carolina this strategy was expanded to allow social workers to petition to have welfare recipients who were deemed "imbeciles" or those with medical problems such as epilepsy to be sterilized in order to reduce the burgeoning roles of individuals and families who lived on government assistance.  This solution was called "eugenics."  From 1929 to 1977 the Eugenics Board of North Carolina systematically sterilized people who "qualified" according to the social workers who petitioned for this procedure. The argument was made that the state had the right to eliminate further drags on the welfare system by permanently taking away people's ability to procreate.  Chamberlain told her story through the experience of families who were under the power of the welfare workers who handled their cases.  Through the sad story of Ivy, her sister Mary Ella, her grandmother Nonnie and her nephew Baby William along with their interactions with their "employer" Mr. Gardner, we are shown the power that the Eugenics Boards had over people's lives.  Choices were made for clients, decisions that had lifetime implications were taken out of their control and often times these people were not even told the truth about what was happening to them. An example of this was seen in Mary Ella who was told she was having her appendix out when in fact she had her tubes tied.  It was a "frightful thing" Ivy tells us to know someone has power over your whole life. 
    So perhaps Swift's proposal was not so farfetched.  Perhaps the social stratum will always find ways to keep power and control in the hands of those who believe they are more qualified to decide  The problem however is that there will always be people who question, who sees the flaws in any manmade solution.  Perhaps in the end we will resign ourselves to the reality that there is no one universal answer, no complete fix.  Sometimes we will be left with the knowledge that "even though we may have done the right thing we can still feel sick with doubt."  Chamberlain captured the reader's desire to find answers but left us with the clear understanding that no one solution fits every situation.  This was a fiction book based on factual evidence taken from cases in North Carolina.  The author reveals this tragic time in the history of NC and leaves you wondering how the people in charge could possible believe that "eating the babies" was a good idea.