STERILIZATION OP DEFCTIVES
Virginia Statute Interpreted by
Supreme Qourt of United States
The subject was presented to the
Supreme Court of the United States
by an appeal in the case of Buck
v. Bell and is reported in the Su
preme Court Reports volume 47
page 584.
This case raised the question of
the constitutionality of the Virgin
ia Statute which provided for the
sterilization of feeble minded and
insane persons in cerain cases. The
plaintiff in error sought to reverse
an order that she should be steril
ized by salpingectomy (cutting the
fallopian tubes). The essential
facts of the case were stated in the
opinion of the Court which was de
livered by Mr. Justice Holmes who
said:
“Carrie Buck is a feeble minded
white woman who was committed
to the State Colony above mention
ed in due form. She is the daught
er of a feeble minded mother in
the same institution, and the mother
of an illigitimate feeble minded
child. She was eighteen years old
at the time of the trial of her case
in the Circuit Court, in the latter
part of 1924. An Act of Virginia
approved March 20, 1924, recites
that the health of the patient and
the welfare of society may be pro
moted in certain cases by the ster
ilization of mental defectives, un
der careful safeguard, etc.; that the
sterilization may be effected in
males by vasectomy and in females
by salpingectomy, without serious
pain or substantial danger to life;
that the Commonwealth is support
ing ir. various institutions many
defective persons who if now dis
charged would become a menace but
if incapable of procreating might
be discharged with safety and be
come self-supporting with benefit
to themselves and to society; and
that experience has shown that
hereditary plays an important part
in the transmission of insanity, im
becillity, etc. The statute then
enacts that whenever the superin
tendent of certain institutions, in
cluding the above named State Col
ony, shall be of the opinion that it
is for the best interests of the pa
tients and of society that an in
mate under his care should be sex
ually sterilized, he may have the op
eration upon any patient afflicted
with hereditary forms of insanity,
imbecility, etc., on complying with
the very careful provisions by which
the act protects the patients from
possible abuse.**
The procedure required was then
summarized and it was pointed out
that the rights of the defective per
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