Eugenic Sterilization Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Eugenic Sterilization Law - Essay Example In 1924, Carrie Buck a teenager mother was accused in a court of law for bearing a child outside of wedlock and that her child would probably be socially inadequate. Ms. Buck, whose feeble-minded mother had been admitted in the state colony of epileptics and feeble-minded, was the first American to face eugenic sterilization law. Harry Laughlin’s authentication about Ms. Buck and her child and Eugenic Record Office testimony about her child’s disorder made the court rule in favor of the states. She appealed for a review of the case but the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the state. Basing his argument on the fact that Ms. Buck was feeble-minded, chief justice Oliver W. Holmes ordered Superintendent Bell to go ahead and perform salpingectomy operation on Carrie Buck. He concluded that it was better for the entire world if unfit human breeds were wiped from the society instead of waiting for them, to bear offspring and execute them for crimes.Later, Paul Lombardo a h istorian at the University of Virginia found out that, apart from Miss Buck’s child turning out to be a very bright student at 7 years old, Buck had been raped. Following this, Eugenics Record Office was forced to close and with time eugenicists’ claims were disapproved by other scientists. This decision had also contributed to more than 65,000 inferiors being forcefully sterilized between 1927 and 1979. United States government has since then been holding annual anniversaries to apologize for the shameful Buck decision.