Eugenic Sterilization Laws Summary

What really caught my attention when reading through the articles were the eugenic sterilization laws. You can really generate an idea of how harsh these laws were by the statement Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes dispensed of how “three generations of imbeciles were enough” (Kevles, 10) during the Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case in 1927. What is even more shocking was learning that two-dozen states during this time period had endorsed laws that permitted the sterilization of such peoples. We look down on Germany for the massive human extinction that occurred there while being unaware that California sterilization laws were a precursor to the rise of concentration camps. According to the Buck v. Bell case, “if incapable of procreating, (one) might be discharged with safety and become …show more content…
One disease that comes to mind that gets a bad reputation for influencing deviant behavior is schizophrenia. Studies done by Faris and Dunham show urban birth to be linked to schizophrenia to the extent that, “researchers now routinely assume that urban birth raises the baseline risk of schizophrenia by roughly 50%” (Schmidt). This is an astonishing figure and is just one example of how influential ones environment can be on their growth and development. Their reasoning to why attention was not shifted to economics was also concerning. It is clearly understood now that lower income groups are forced to live in areas where the educational opportunities aren’t held to the same standard as more affluent regions. The education system is subject to underfunding, which leads to neglected facilities that students show no aspiration to attend everyday. This underfunding also leads to the hiring of inexperienced teachers who aren’t necessarily qualified to teach under those environmental