I have many distant relatives on both sides of family but we are not in touch. Years after my brother and I were diagnosed I learned it was on my mother’s side as well as my father’s side. I think this helped my father feel less guilty. I think at least some of the extended family members felt diabetes was shameful, an indication of “genetic inferiority.” My own mother had been a strong believer in eugenics…till her own sons developed diabetes.
You would not believe how many “educated” Americans and Europeans including doctors and even Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter endorsed eugenic practices like sterilizing people classified as “idiots,” “morons,” “homosexuals,” “insane,” epileptics, “criminals,” the colonized indigenous people of color, “cripples,” “half-breeds,” etc. Thousands were sterilized in the US well into the 1960’s. Ever seen the movie, “The Bad Seed?” Have you seen the PBS documentaries? Read any of the well-documented books? In “liberal” Seattle I met a “mixed-race” couple who could not buy or rent outside of the redlined zone. The world’s largest “democracy” still has a caste system based on the supposed superiority of lighter skin color. Today, look at the rise in popularity of “anti-immigrant” politicians in many “white” “so-called Christian” countries. How will YOU vote next month?