Ep. 57: Breeder

In 1927, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a young Virginia woman could be sterilized against her will, and the justice who wrote the opinion summed it up in one infamous line: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Her name was Carrie Buck. She was 17, poor, pregnant, and suddenly labeled “feebleminded” by the people who wanted her out of sight. What followed was a test case built to fail her, with a defense attorney who barely defended, expert witnesses who never met her, and doctors ready to perform the procedure the moment the gavel came down.

This week, Andrea walks Crystal through the story of Carrie Buck and the American eugenics movement: how “better breeding” became law in dozens of states, how medicine lent it credibility, and how tens of thousands of people lost the ability to have children because someone decided they were unfit. As nurses, we can’t ignore the uncomfortable truth that this was carried out in hospitals, by clinicians, in the name of public health.

And here’s the part that may surprise you: Buck v. Bell has never been overturned.