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Buck v. Bell

Buck v. Bell. Eugenics in America Bob Cahill March 28, 2002. Eugenics Hits America. Eugenics - a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed. Hitler practiced by “removing” inferiors Jews Handicapped

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Buck v. Bell

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  1. Buck v. Bell Eugenics in America Bob Cahill March 28, 2002

  2. Eugenics Hits America • Eugenics - a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed. • Hitler practiced by “removing” inferiors • Jews • Handicapped • Resisters to Nazi movement • Homosexuals • Criminals

  3. Equity - Early 20th Century • Pushing for Equity • Labor Unions • Civil Rights Groups • Women’s Suffragists • Speaking out against Equity • Nativist Groups • Racist Groups (Ku Klux Klan) • Eugenicists

  4. Eugenicists Scare Americans • Phenomena in America • Industrialization • Urbanization • African American Migration • Influx of Poor Immigrants • Competition for Jobs • Fear of Overcrowding • Solution: Eugenics

  5. Manufacturing Better People “The American eugenics movement promised prosperity and progress, not through strikes or ugly race riots, but through a new science that would combine advances in the field of genetics with the efficiency of the assembly line.” -Alan Stoskepf, 1999

  6. Eugenics in the Law • Involuntary Sterilization • 30 states passed laws. • President Coolidge Spoke for eugenics • Involuntary sterilizations performed in United States • “feeble minded” citizens • Citizens with epilepsy

  7. Carrie Buck • Virginia, 1924 • At age 18, committed to the State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded • Considered “feebleminded” for giving birth to a child out of wedlock • Chosen to receive salpingectomy (Cutting of the fallopian tubes) under new sterilization law passed by the state of Virginia

  8. Buck v. Bell, Take One • Buck challenged constitutionality of the state’s right to sterilize her • Circuit Court of Amherst County • No witnesses • Only arguments in her favor • References to legal questions • Brief and Technical

  9. Buck v. Bell, Take One • Decision in favor of state • Court ordered that Buck be sterilized

  10. Buck v. Bell, Take Two • Buck appealed to Virginia Appellate Court. • Decision of Circuit Court Upheld

  11. Buck v. Bell, Take Three • Case appealed to US Supreme Court • Decision Upheld • The majority opinion of the Court • Virginia’s compulsory sterilization law was constitutional • Precedent Established • State government arbiters of human reproduction practices

  12. Buck v. Bell, Take Three “The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes…” -Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

  13. Consequences • International • Precedent influenced social policy around the world • World War II • Domestic • Over 27,000 Americans sterilized involuntarily within 10 years • Loss of freedom

  14. Questions

  15. Recommendations • Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story, movie directed by John David Coles • Heredity and Humanity: Race, Eugenics, and Modern Science,by Roger Pearson

  16. References • ABCNEWS_com 20-20 Forced Sterilization in the U_S • Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe • Buck v. Bell • Carrie Buck Story • EarthStation1.com - The WWII Sounds & Pictures Page • Merriam-Webster Online • Rethinking Schools - The Forgotten History of Eugenics • Sanger Fact Sheet • The Holocaust of World War II

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