Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell

Authors

Paul A. Lombardo, Georgia State University College of LawFollow

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

1-1-2008

Abstract

Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell (Johns Hopkins University Press) tells the story of the 1927 U. S. Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, which approved laws allowing states to perform surgery in order to prevent "feebleminded and socially inadequate" people from having children. In the Buck case the Supreme Court endorsed involuntary sterilization as a tool of government eugenic policy, setting the stage for similar laws in the majority of states. The case is most often remembered by the Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., opinion, which ended in the rhetorical climax: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Paul Lombardo sets out in this book to challenge the accuracy of the Holmes opinion, and recount in detail the events that brought Buck to the Supreme Court.

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Recommended Citation

Paul A. Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press 2008).

Institutional Repository Citation

Paul A. Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell, Faculty Publications By Year 1593 (2008)
https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/faculty_pub/1593

ISBN

9780801890109