BUCK VS BELL

CARRIE BUCK- PLANTIFF

• Intellectually disabled
• Mental age of 9
• Committed to a state mental institution
• The 2nd of 3 generations to be "feeble minded"
• Buck argued that the due process clause guarantees all adults the right to procreate which was being violated

JOHN HENDREN BELL- DEFENDENT

• Argued that Carrie and her mother were "feeble minded" and "promiscuous"
• Felt that it was in the states best interest to sterilize her
• A Virginia law allowed for sexual sterilization of inmates to "promote the Heath of the patient, and the welfare of society"
• Said "three generations of imbeciles are enough"

COURTS RULING

• In an 8-1 vote they did not overturn it
• Pierce Butler the only dissenting vote did not write a dissenting opinion

EFFECTS OF RULING

• Legitimized eugenic sterilization laws in the US
• Eugenicist Harry H. Laughlin tried to creat the "Model Law" for eugenic sterilization that could take constitutional scrutiny making it easier for sterilization operations
• Hitler closely modelled his Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring on the "Model Law" and the third
• At the Nuremberg trials Nazi doctors brought upHolmes's opinions in Buck v. Bell as part of their defense