sterilization

plural sterilizations · alternative sterilisation

1. BritishEnglishOxfordUSuncountableThe process of treating something to kill or inactivate microorganisms.

   Heat sterilization is used during canning so the food can be safely stored for long periods.

2. BritishEnglishOxfordUSuncountableA procedure to permanently prevent an organism from reproducing.

   Spaying a cat is a form of sterilization to limit the population growth.

   1 more example

   One the most chilling parts of the film, which is available online, involves an appearance by Adolf Hitler. Ferrari shows how America’s sterilization policies inspired Nazi Germany’s leaders to launch their own eugenics program, which later led to genocide.

   2018 October 16, John Blake, “When Americans tried to breed a better race: How a genetic fitness ‘crusade’ marches on”, in CNN

3. BritishEnglishOxfordUScountableAn instance of a sterilization procedure.

   The vet performed several sterilizations this week.

   2 more examples

   One of the most shocking aspects of the Chinese occupation is the forced sterilization of Tibetan women. In an article on this subject, the ICLT used my photograph of a nomadic woman with her herd of goats in the Ngari region of western Tibet. In many ways this is one of the more idyllic photographs I have taken. It is a wonderfully warm image that captures the woman in the late-day sun while in the distance yak-hair tents are scattered across a dramatic Tibetan landscape. The accompanying text shatters Shangri-la like a bullet through a stained-glass window: “Gross violations of women’s reproductive freedom are not uncommon in Tibet. Some of the most disturbing reports are of ‘blitz’ campaigns of mobile family planning teams, which have gone into remote villages of Tibet and carried out forced abortions and sterilizations of virtually every woman of child bearing age, regardless of the number of children, age, or health. These barbaric practices, says the Chinese Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, ‘constitute an immediate threat to the survival of Tibetans as a distinct people.'"

   1999, Art Perry, The Tibetans, Viking Studio, →ISBN, pages 23–24

   The eugenics mania that swept the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to forced sterilizations and the passage of laws in 27 states designed to limit the numbers of those considered genetically unfit: immigrants, Jews, African-Americans, the mentally ill and those deemed “morally delinquent.”

   2018 October 16, John Blake, “When Americans tried to breed a better race: How a genetic fitness ‘crusade’ marches on”, in CNN

4. BritishEnglishOxfordUSuncountableA monetary policy operation used to offset a foreign exchange intervention.

   The Federal Reserve is responsible for foreign exchange sterilization.

5. BritishEnglishOxfordUSuncountableThe process of permanently rendering a planet like Earth completely uninhabitable to all life, including even microbes, leading to their complete extinction.

   In about 1 billion years, the increasing heat from the Sun as it gradually ages, by triggering a runaway greenhouse effect that will boil away the oceans, will lead to the complete sterilization of all life on Earth.