 | Three Generations, No Imbeciles Subjects: Sterilization Involuntary; History 20th Century; Eugenics; Eugenics; Sterilization Involuntary; Insanity (Law); Sterilization (Birth control); Law professor and historian Lombardo does a superb job of revealing, for the first time, all the facts in the infamous Buck v. Bell case of the 1920s, the Supreme Court decision ratifying Virginia's compulsory sterilization of "feebleminded" people. In the majority decision, Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. called the plaintiffs "manifestly unfit" both mentally and morally, and insisted that "three generations of imbeciles are enough." This decision--which has never been overturned--led to tens of thousands of involuntary sterilizations. Lombardo interviewed the last survivor of the three Buck women who were plaintiffs; turned up indisputable evidence that there was no feeblemindedness in that family; unearthed previously unknown correspondence of Carrie Buck's attorney, who, believing the law to be necessary, mounted a deliberately insufficient defense; and documented the private family tragedy (an incestuous rape and resulting pregnancy) that lay behind the Bucks' encounter with doctors bent on exploring eugenics. His book is a testament to injustice and to ignorance--not that of the Buck women, but rather of powerful doctors, attorneys and Supreme Court justices. 17 b&w photos. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Paul A. Lombardo is a professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law. He has played a key role, as both a historian and a lawyer, in the movement to solicit state apologies and legislative denunciations of past eugenics laws. |
