The Sterilization of Carrie Buck: Was She Feebleminded or Society's Pawn? (Hardcover)

by J. David Smith (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
"Three generations of imbeciles" were "enough" for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes to establish in the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell the constitutionality of sterilizing imbeciles. This decision was later used by the Nazis to justify their racial exterminations and is still on the books in this country today. The authors document that Carrie Buck, her mother, and her child were all competent, literate, and able to live in a community. Carrie, a teenaged victim of rape, had been institutionalized, sterilized, and released as a source of cheap, domestic labor essentially because she was young, poor, and powerless. Truly incompetent, severely impaired individuals were never sterilized. The book covers Buck's life and a general history of this legislation, which justified over 50,000 sterilizations in America without due process or consent. An essential title for law, advocacy, genealogy, feminist, and general collections.
- Karen Jackson, Susanna Wesley Sch., Tallahassee, Fla.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Inside story of America's first compulsory sterilization. Electrifying disclosures by Carrie herself.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: New Horizon Press (July 25, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882820451
• ISBN-13: 978-0882820453
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,815,588 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Mad Scientists of Eugenics , August 23, 2006

By	Acute Observer (N. Jersey Shore) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The Sterilization of Carrie Buck, by J. David Smith and K. Ray Nelson

The `Foreword' quotes Stephen Jay Gould as saying the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck was comparable to the Scopes Trial, but with a greater impact on people's lives that the belief in creationism (p.xv). Eugenics is the pure-bred descendant of Darwin's theory, an error compounded from a mistaken belief system. Chapter 1 tells of Carrie Buck's poverty-stricken childhood. She was adopted at age 3 and became a servant. She was a normal child during her 5 years of schooling (p.3). After a family member raped her, Carrie was turned out of the only home she knew by being classified as "feeble-minded" (p.5). Chapter 2 tells how Emma Buck, Carrie's mother, was committed to a state institution. It does not explain the cause. Carrie's child was adopted by the very family that claimed Carrie was "feeble-minded" (p.23)! The Superintendent of this "Colony" was a believer in eugenics (p.29). The hidden agenda of Dr. Albert Priddy was to use sterilization to provide servants or concubines to "good families" with the "normal functions of any woman" (p.33)! Dr. Priddy had been rebuked by the judge in an earlier case, Mallory v. Priddy for sterilizing a wife and daughter (p.36).

Sterilization laws had been declared unconstitutional as being class legislation (patients in state institutions) when done without due process and depriving a person of their natural right to procreate (pp.49-50). Public sentiment was against this; but when it was changed a law was passed. Then a test case was needed. The "expert witness" never met Carrie Buck (p.59)! Carrie Buck's lawyer, Irving Whitehead, was a close friend to Strode (p.86). Chapter 7 has the testimony of neighbors at the Trial. In Chapter 8 Whitehead argued that sterilization and release could spread venereal disease (pp.120-122)! Estabrook testified from a fashion cloaked as a science (p.131). There was scant scientific evidence for Carrie's "feeble-mindedness" (p.141). Research was funded by a millionaire (p.146). The Dobbs would take Carrie back if only she was sterilized (p.165)! Carrie's daughter was a normal and average student (p.171); she later died of measles.

The sterilization judgment was appealed: it deprived a citizen of the right to procreate without due process of law; it violated the Fourteenth Amendment of equal protection under the law for all; it violated the Eighth Amendment (p.175). The Trial Testimony was based on hearsay. Whitehead said upholding this law created the "worse kind of tyranny" where the state would have god-like power while the state is nothing more that a faction of politicians (p.176). Oliver Wendell Holmes took pleasure in deciding for the State of Virginia (p.178). [Senility?] This Virginia law was adopted by the Third Reich in 1933. Afterwards Carrie was placed as a domestic servant (p.187). She later married (twice), but her last years were spent in poverty.

Statistics can manipulate any body of data so as to support opposing conclusions (p.224). The young and poor from small communities were the common victims of sterilization (p.234). The looniness of eugenics advocates is shown on page 247: a cure-all for poverty and ignorance! [Poverty is the result of the Ruling Class's powers.] Elmer Pendell's poll of his students is dishonest (p.251). The eugenics falsehood still lives in the consciousness of many people (the Big Lie technique). Science knows that a lack of proper nutrition can cause many of the defects called "feeble-mindedness"; this is a result of poverty and oppression. This book lacks an index. [There used to be a "mad scientist" character in popular entertainment of the past; I now understand this.]