Buck v Bell

Now considered one of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court, Buck v Bell permitted the forced sterilization of the "unfit," most notably the mentally disabled.

First, it is important to understand the concept of eugenics. Eugenics is a science that deals with improving the human population by controlling breeding in order to increase the likelihood of "desirable" traits to be inherited. Social Darwinism, once rampant in American society, helped advance eugenics.

On September 10, 1924, Dr. Albert Sidney Priddy filed a petition to his Board of Directors at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded to sterilize Carrie Buck, an eighteen-year-old patient at his institution that he claimed had the mental age of a nine-year-old. He stated that Buck represented a genetic threat to society.

Carrie was one of the three children her mother, whom Priddy also said had the mental age of an eight-year-old and a record of prostitution and immorality, had. As a child, her mother was committed to an institution for feeble-mindedness and Carrie was taken in by an adoptive family. Eventually, she had a child and was committed to that same institution by her adopted family. Both Emma and Carrie were deemed to be promiscuous because they had children before marriage. (Though it was later discovered that her pregnancy was not caused by any wrongdoing or "immorality" on her part. In the summer of 1923, her adoptive mother's nephew raped Carrie and her commitment was later seen as an attempt to save their reputation). Emma, Carrie, and her child, Vivian were then used as an example of three generations of "imbeciles" that Virginia officials would use as a test case in favor of a eugenic sterilization law.

While the litigation was working its way up the court system, Priddy died and Dr. John Hendren Bell, his successor, took up the case. The Board of Directors whom Priddy had appealed to issued an order for Buck's sterilization but her guardian appealed the case to the Circuit Court of Amherst County which ended up sustaining the decision of the Board. The case then made its way up to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia who decided the sterilization law was compliant with state and federal constitutions. From there it went to the Supreme Court.

Buck and her guardian believed that the due process clause guarantees all adults the right to procreate and that that right was being violated. They also said that the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment was being violated because not all similarly situated people were being treated the same (the sterilization law was only for the "feeble-minded" at certain state institutions and did not pertain to people at other state institutions or those that weren't in one).

On May 2, 1927, the Court accepted (in an 8-1 decision) that Buck, both the mother and daughter, were "feeble-minded" and "promiscuous" and that it was in the state's best interest to have her sterilized. They stated that the interest of "public welfare" outweighed the interest of individuals in their bodily integrity.

In 1933 Germany, a law much like this, the Eugenic Sterilization Law, allowed for the involuntary sterilization of German citizens who possessed hereditary afflictions (like blindness), epilepsy, mental illnesses like schizophrenia, and physical handicaps. To present-day Americans, a decision like this, which is so similar to one made by Nazi Germany, is atrocious and almost unbelievable. Yet, to this day, the Supreme Court has yet to expressly overturn the ruling made in Buck v Bell.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell
http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6505/650507.html
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/39.html