Buck v. Bell, the Fight for Women's Rights

The case of Buck v. Bell took place in 1927. The case was brought to the supreme court because it was questioned if the law contradicted the 14th Amendment.

Carrie Buck

Carrie Buck was diagnosed as "feeble-minded" and "promiscuous". She had a daughter named Vivian. As a baby, Vivian was also diagnosed as "feeble-minded". Even Carrie's mother was labeled as "feeble-minded". Because of this ongoing diagnosis, Carrie Buck was chosen to be sterilized against her will to prevent the continuation of "feeble-minds". Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was the supreme court justice assigned to the case.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

He was known as "The Great Dissenter". He said, "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime to let them starve for their imbecility. Society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

Henry H. Laughlin

 

Dr. John H. Bell

Dr. John H. Bell and Henry H. Laughlin were respondents in the case, both  eugenicist. They were known as the creators of the "Model Law". The "Model Law" is a seven page law written by Laughlin, a template to introduce sterilization. The Model Law was used to make sterilization constitutional.




The criteria for being sterilized were:
1. Feeble-Minded
2. Insane (including psychopaths)
3. Criminals (including the delinquent and wayward)
4. Epileptic
5. Inebriate (including drug habits)
6. Diseased (including the tuberculous, the syphilitic, the leprous)
7. Blind
8. Deaf
9. Deformed (Crippled)
10. Dependent (including orphans, the homeless, and tramps)

Holmes described Carrie as, "The probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring likewise inflicted." The Chief Justice upheld the sterilization law. Soon after the case, many states added sterilization laws. Adolf Hitler's "Law For the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" was modeled after Laughlin's Model Law.