The Sterilization of Carrie Buck 1927 – Eugenics

Eugenics is a social movement or philosophy of contested scientific validity that seeks ways to separate unhealthy fetuses and raise healthy ones. Eugenic practices aim to alter the human gene pool by preventing people with genetic defects or unwanted traits from reproducing and encouraging reproduction among those judged superior. 

The ancient Spartans practiced a form of eugenics by throwing weak or deformed infants into a pit. The British statistician Francis Galton proposed “creating a race of highly gifted people through suitable marriages” and introduced eugenics in 1883.

The United States was the first country in modern times to begin compulsory sterilization for eugenic purposes. 

The sterilization of 17-year-old Carrie Buck, who lived in Virginia, is a famous case. In 1924, Carrie was raped by her foster mother's nephews. However, her family called her “feeble-minded” and “immoral”. She was sent to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and the Feeble-Minded. In fact, the family was ashamed of the rape and pregnancy. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Virginia Sterilization Act did not violate the United States Constitution, and Carrie was sterilized in 1927. To convince the judges, lawyers claimed that Carrie's mother and daughter Vivian also had intellectual disabilities. 

In 1927, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote about Carrie: “Rather than waiting for degenerate offspring to commit crimes, it would be better to prevent those manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of intellectual disability are enough.” Vivian, however, had average intelligence and was on the school honor roll. 

Carrie's sister Doris was also sterilized without being informed of the nature of the operation and spent years wondering why she could not have children.

More than 65,000 people were sterilized in the United States from the early 1900s to the 1970s. By the end of World War II, the Germans had sterilized about 400,000 people. In reaction to the Nazis' practices, the eugenics movement was largely discredited by the international community of politicians and scientists.

About the Article Image: Carrie Buck and her sister Doris

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Francis Galton (1822–1911), Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841– 1935), Carrie Buck (1906–1983)

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