Carrie Buck was an institutionalized patient at the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded. The superintendent of her mental institution was ordered to perform a salpingectomy in her in order to make her sterile. Carrie challenged the local statute that allowed for the sterilization of the feeble minded and filed a suit against her superintendent. Buck argued that her rights as a U.S. citizen were being infringed upon, specifically her Fourteenth Amendment rights. The local statue was upheld in the county court, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and the U.S Supreme Court (1). This was one of the first times that eugenics, or the artificial selection for humans, was challenged. This case is controversial today with our present values
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At this time, the people who believed this to be true had not seen anything like the euthanasia in Nazi Germany. Hitler and the Nazis believed that they were bettering society, just like people who practiced eugenics; however, instead of simple sterilizing them Hitler and the Nazis believed it would be better to kill all of the people with disabilities to begin to create a perfect race of humans. If those practicing eugenics had seen the terrible acts that occurred during world war II Nazi Germany, they probably would not have continued their practices, but World War II did not occur until the 1940s so people practicing eugenics did not know the terrible things that eugenics could lead to.
In addition to the lack of experience and the positive beliefs associated with the artificial selection of humans, Carrie Buck was a woman. At this time women did not have a large say in what happened in society. Women did not have an equal position as men in society, which may have also influenced the Supreme Court’s decision to rule in favor of the local statute that allowed the superintendent of her mental institution, who was a man, to sterilize
At this time, the people who believed this to be true had not seen anything like the euthanasia in Nazi Germany. Hitler and the Nazis believed that they were bettering society, just like people who practiced eugenics; however, instead of simple sterilizing them Hitler and the Nazis believed it would be better to kill all of the people with disabilities to begin to create a perfect race of humans. If those practicing eugenics had seen the terrible acts that occurred during world war II Nazi Germany, they probably would not have continued their practices, but World War II did not occur until the 1940s so people practicing eugenics did not know the terrible things that eugenics could lead to.
In addition to the lack of experience and the positive beliefs associated with the artificial selection of humans, Carrie Buck was a woman. At this time women did not have a large say in what happened in society. Women did not have an equal position as men in society, which may have also influenced the Supreme Court’s decision to rule in favor of the local statute that allowed the superintendent of her mental institution, who was a man, to sterilize