Court case of Buck v. Bell



Court case of Buck v. Bell

Introduction

The case of Buck and Bell of the 1927 was a decision that was taken by the court of the United States of America. It was written by the one, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In this decision, the court ruled out that permitting a state statue necessary sterilization of those who are not fit, including even the ones who are mentally unfit or retarded, was not in the violation of the due process clause of the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States of America, as far as the health and the protection of the state was concerned. This decision taken by the court was seen largely as negative eugenics endorsement, an attempt for the elimination of those who were defective, so as to improve the human race, (Berns, 1953).

Buck v. Bell was never overruled expressly by the Supreme Court. However, in the last fifty years, the federal and state courts, both have been criticizing and questioning the legal reasoning that underlies the decision. The paper focuses on the case of Carrie Buck. It throws light on the background of the case and discusses about the decisions that were taken by the courts.

Discussion

Carrie Buck is a white woman who is feeble minded. She was admitted to the state colony in due form. Her mother is also a feeble minded person residing in the same institution. She is also a mother of a child who is feeble and illegitimate. She was eighteen years of age when she first attended the trial of the case in 1924 at Circuit Court. The act of Virginia that was approved in the March of the same year, testifies that the health condition of the patient and the society's welfare can be promoted in specific cases through the sterilization of all those defectives that makes a person mentally unfit, under a very careful and safe safeguard, that this sterilization can be affected in men through vasectomy and in women through salpingectomy, with the absence of pain or any danger to the life. Commonwealth is in favor of supporting various setups and institutions with many defective people, (Lombardo, 1985). It is believed that if these people are discharged right away, they will become a menace in the society. However, if they are not capable for conceiving and procreating, must be discharged with safety, and may also become self supporting with advantages to the society and to themselves.

Experience has shown that in all this, heredity has an essential role to play, when it comes to the transmission of imbecility and insanity. The statute states that whenever a superintendent of a specific institute, such as the state colony, holds an opinion which it believes is the best for the interests of the patients and also that of the society that a certain inmate under the care must be sterilized sexually, the operation must be performed on the patient who is afflicted with any form ...