The Buck V. Bell Decision:
The Supreme Court Upholds Forced Sterilization_____________________________________
|
“The attack
is not upon the procedure but upon
the substantive law. It seems to be contended that in no circumstances
could
such an order be justified. It certainty is contended that the order
cannot be
justified upon the existing grounds. The judgment finds the facts that
have
been recited and that Carrie Buck ‘is
the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring,
likewise
afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her
general
health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her
sterilization,’ and thereupon makes the order. In view of the general
declarations of the Legislature and the specific findings of the Court
obviously we cannot say as matter of law that the grounds do not exist,
and if
they exist they justify the result. We have seen more than once that
the
public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It
would be
strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of
the
state for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those
concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It
is
better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate
offspring
for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can
prevent
those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The
principle that
sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the
Fallopian
tube....Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”24
-Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., May 2, 1927. 
 Supreme Court Chief Justice
Oliver
Virginia Involuntary Sterilization Order
Form.
Carrie Buck.
Wendell Holmes, Jr. All photographs courtesy of the "Image Archive of the American Eugenics Movement" located at http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/ |
| Page
Created By: Noah
Cincinnati
Email Address: ncinc5ce@umw.edu
Page Updated: 3/16/05 |