Stephanie Lerma
Professor Hogen-Esch
Political Science 155
29 September 2014
RA #3: Buck vs. Bell

In 1927 there was a Supreme Court case known as Buck vs. Bell in Virginia that was controversial and affected the mentally handicapped citizens in America. It ruled in the favor of the sterilization of Cary Buck who they judged as mentally unfit to have children. The law at the time allowed for forced sterilization if it was in the patient’s best interest. The Supreme Court allowed doctors to perform unwanted surgery on citizens. In the late 19th century Francis Galton created the concept of Eugenics, which is “the study of the agencies under social control, which improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically …show more content…
She appealed and it reached the Supreme Court. “A petition for certiorari was filed, briefs were submitted and on May 2, 1927, the United States Supreme Court upheld Virginia’s eugenical sterilization law by a vote of 8 to 1.” Doctor John Bell of the Virginia colony completed the sterilization operation. “Whitehead argued that sterilization procedures violate the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees certain rights and liberties known as due process; he further stated that there were as of yet no standards on compulsory sterilization to which the Court could compare the Virginia Sterilization Act, and Strode countered that the Act did afford due process rights and that sterilization was not cruel and unusual punishment, he also likened the procedure to compulsory vaccination laws, and further argued that the Act was designed for the protection of society—and the individual.” Bell said that “in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence, it is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute offspring for crime, or let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.” The Supreme Court decided that it was their