Paul Lombardo, author of “Three Generations, No Imbeciles,” has spent almost three decades uncovering the full story of the 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision, writes USA Today.

In 20th-century America, more than 30 states passed legislation supporting forced sterilization as part of a program of eugenics, the “science” of human improvement through controlled breeding. Official tallies say more than 65,000 Americans were sterilized against their will.

Buck. v. Bell upheld the right of the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded to sterilize a “defective” woman named Carrie Buck. The decision has never been overturned.

Lombardo has no plans to abandon his fight to publicize the terrible history of eugenics. With genetics playing an increasingly important role in science, Lombardo and other bioethicists fear the lessons of the eugenics debacle matter more than ever.

University of Maryland historian Steven Selden worries about how we will handle the ethical questions of possible genetic “improvements” to humanity. “We’re going to revisit all the ethical conundrums that were inherent in the eugenics movement as we move forward.”

Related posts here, here and here.

(USA Today photo)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 9:05 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, books, eugenics, history, sterilization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post