“Three Generations of Imbeciles is Enough”
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Three generations of imbeciles is enough.” Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. in Supreme Court Case Buck v. Bell (May 2, 1927).
Just before this famous line, Justice Holmes penned the following:
“We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.” Buck v. Bell (1927).
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This Supreme Court case came roaring back into my life this past week thanks to RadioLab, one of my favorite podcasts. I know about this case from law school, but only after I researched the Nazi Euthanasia program a couple of years ago was I able to put this case into historical context.
The RadioLab Podcast tells the story of a fellow esquire – Mark Bold, who, like me learned of Buck v. Bell as a law student. But unlike me, he asked when this case was overturned – surely it was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Answer: No, never overturned. Most States eliminated sterilization laws, but this Supreme Court case remains on the books.
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“Eugenics” Greek for “good birth,” was coined by Francis Galton who was born in England in 1880 and was a cousin to Charles Darwin. After Darwin told him all about his theory of natural selection, he thought – we can do better – we can help natural selection. He believed that physical and mental traits, as well as moral character were passed down from parent to child. Through selective breeding the human race can be made better. Galton went all around Europe lecturing about this great idea and tons of “scholars” and “scientists” agreed with him.
Eugenics came to America in the early 1990’s. With the huge wave of immigration and with the post-Civil War emancipation of the slaves, there were plenty of unwanted physical, mental and moral traits to eliminate. David Star Jordan (1851-1931), who was the founding President of Stanford University, was a huge proponent of Eugenics. He taught all his brightest students about this great idea. “The Republic will endure,” Jordan stated, “only as long as the human harvest is good.”
Colonies were created all around the country to house epileptics and feeble-minded people. The main purpose was to house these people together so they would not procreate and pass on their unfavorable traits. It included people of color, immigrants, promiscuous women, “morons,” “idiots” and “imbeciles.” Buck v. Bell in 1927 paved the way for 60,000 sterilizations of such people in this country.
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[photo Dr. Mark H. Bell]
Back to Mark Bold and his research.
In 2012, Mark checked State codes and found that indeed most States eliminated their sterilization laws. But then, he found one State where the law was still on the books – Virginia. Chapter 27, Article 16 of the Virginia Code stated that sterilization be allowed for a mentally defective person if sterilization is “in the best interest of society.” He thought if he could bring a case challenging this state law and then it could get appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court and – poof – Buck v. Bell would be overturned.
His first step was to pretend to be a father of a girl who had a mental disability. He called the Virginia Court and asked about the sterilization law for people like his daughter. He was assured that all he needed to do was to file a petition with the court and it would come before a judge and most likely approved. It would be in his daughter’s best interest to be sterilized, the court clerk assured him.
So, realizing that this statute was actually used to sterilize people, Mark published an article about Virginia’s sterilization statute and within a week, the Virginia Legislature overturned the statute. So much for his attempt to get a case up to the Supreme Court.
But this idea, which began in England with Galton, found its way to Germany under Hitler in 1933. One of the first laws passed under Hitler’s rule in 1933 was a sterilization law. One of the tasks Hitler set for the German people was “racial reclamation” – “to weed out the unhealthy section of the population, primarily through sterilization” of “genetically unfit citizens.” (Fritzsche, Peter, Life and Death in the Third Reich, 86) (See blog post written on December 22, 2015).
By 1939, Hitler must have been tired of simply sterilizing these unworthy humans. He decided to murder them. Through deception of a physical exam by a doctor in a white coat, the patient was led to a shower and asphyxiated by gas. Over two years the Nazi Euthanasia Program murdered 70,273 children and adults who had mental or physical disabilities. (See blog post, December 21, 2015). This program was ended in August of 1941 when the some of the German public became aware of the murders. The well-trained doctors and staff were soon redeployed in Poland at the newly constructed Death Camps – Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka – where the unworthy Jews were gassed to death.
Sam Goldberg was saved from the gas chamber at Treblinka through many miracles. I for one, am very glad he was able to pass on his very worthy traits to future generations.
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Photo of Dr. Bell is from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_v._Bell
Photo of Supreme Court Seal – attribution: By Original:OptimagerVector:Ipankonin – Own work based on: Seal of the United States Supreme Court.png by Optimager.This SVG seal includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this seal: US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg (by Ssolbergj)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1831846
