Book examines high court support for sterilization of ‘unfit’
November 18th, 2008
From USA Today:
A new book by legal historian Paul Lombardo of Georgia State University says scientists, officials and even her own lawyer conspired against Carrie Buck in the landmark legal case that bears her name, in an effort to justify Virginia’s compulsory sterilization of “feeble-minded” people.
The book, “Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell” analyzes the facts and personalities behind the 1927 legal case that has never been overturned.
Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes insisted that “three generations of imbeciles is enough,” and described Buck and her family as “manifestly unfit,” both physically and morally. Lombardo produces evidence, however, that Carrie Buck and her family were not imbeciles but were rather the targets of a eugenic agenda.
In the wake of the Buck v. Bell decision, Lombardo writes, about 30 states adopted involuntary sterilization laws, all based on the dishonest testimony and deceitful lawyering of Buck v. Bell.
It is estimated that 60,000 Americans were sterilized against their will in the first half of the 20th Century.
“Buck earns a place in the legal hall of shame not only because Holmes’ opinion was unnecessarily callous but also because it was based on deceit and betrayal,” writes Lombardo.
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