Eugenics is a Pseudoscientific set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population. Eugenics became negatively popular through the Holocaust in Nazi, Germany, which was the removal of Jewish and other non-German races and the murder of about 12 million people. Eugenics was also popular in America though it was not bought into by most people in the country.
Eugenics became popular in America through the Buck vs. Bell decision on may 2, 1927. "The United States Supreme Court upheld a Virginia statute that provided for the eugenic sterilization for people considered genetically unfit” (Eugenics Archive). The court’s decision was delivered to the public by Olver Wendell Holmes Jr., who’s famous phrase was “Three generations of imbeciles are enough” (Eugenics Archive). The agreement and upholding of Virginia’s sterilization statute provided for some other 30 states to provide similar laws and about 65000 forced sterilized Americans.
The most famous case of Buck vs. Bell was Carrie Buck and her mother Emma Buck were condemned to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded, they were committed here because they had both birthed children that were not out of marriage. Soon after Carrie’s daughter, Vivian, was born she was condemned as “feebleminded” which completed three generations of imbeciles, allowing Virginia to enact the Eugenic Sterilization Law in 1924.
The night before their trial Vivian Buck’s doctor said she was moving backwards in growth, though she was only seven months old and they had no real proof for this statement. “The Superintendent of the Virginia Colony, Dr. Albert Priddy, testified that members of the Buck family ‘belong to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South’” (Eugenics Archive). This statement and the previous that Vivian was moving backwards proved and pushed the Supreme Court to force sterilization among the Buck family.
For roughly 75 years Virginians and the Supreme Court did not acknowledge the fact that Eugenics was a Pseudoscience and that its beliefs were based upon faulty science. But in 2001 the Virginia General Assembly finally did acknowledge these facts and expressed its “profound regret over the Commonwealth’s role in the eugenics movement in this country and over the damage done in the name of eugenics” (Eugenics Archive).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/39.html
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/39.html
I like your concise summary/overview of Buck vs.Bell but I have a few questions. In my opinion, this type of issue is far too private for government to intervene and judge what is wrong or what is right. Obviously, my opinion stems from the fact that we live in an age where something like this is considered immoral. However, couldn't it be said that people today are still having these types of arguments? It's interesting to see that abortion is associated with a woman's right to be independent but in Buck vs. Bell it is exactly the opposite.
ReplyDeleteSource:http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/buck_v_bell_1927
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ReplyDeleteIt is also worth mentioning that key concept that led to the development of eugenics was the concept of unfit vs fit individuals. In the early twentieth century many believed that both class and race played into the fitness of an individual. Therefore, many American eugenicists said that social development could tell us about a country's genetic fitness. In other words, the country with the most fit individuals would develop faster. Therefore, I wonder how we could relate eugenics to other beliefs such as Social Darwinism. Was Social Darwinism just another concept that Americans used to justify the elimination of the weak ones? Would someone like Vanderbilt and Rockefeller favor eugenics?
ReplyDeleteLink: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States