This updated edition includes a new afterword that identifies the role the Buck story plays in the Supreme Court's review of emerging state laws that seek to limit access to abortion. "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Few lines from U.S. Supreme Court opinions are as memorable as this declaration by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the landmark 1927 case Buck v. Bell. The ruling allowed states to forcibly sterilize residents in order to prevent "feebleminded and socially inadequate" people from having children. It is the only time the Supreme Court endorsed surgery as a tool of government policy. Though Buck set the stage for more than sixty thousand involuntary sterilizations in the United States and was cited at the Nuremberg trials in defense of Nazi sterilization experiments, it has never been overturned. It has been more than a decade since Paul A. Lombardo's classic Three Generations, No Imbeciles first exposed the Buck case's fraudulent roots. During that time, several of the remaining twentieth-century eugenic sterilization statutes have finally been repealed, and reparations to sterilization survivors have been paid in two states. Discussion of the Buck case has once again engendered controversy in the courts. The Wisconsin Supreme Court invoked Buck most recently in a debate over the power of the state to enact restrictions on citizens and businesses during the COVID-19 crisis, and the US Supreme Court cited Three Generations, No Imbeciles in arguments over the newest state laws seeking to limit access to abortion. This updated edition collects and analyzes information related to events and trends discussed in the earlier volume, including a completely new afterword, "Looking Back at Buck," that explains how the case remains a key feature of public discourse about disability, government power, and reproductive rights. It also presents restored copies of the letters of Carrie Buck and points readers to an online archive of legal documents, images, and other material relevant to the case. The book remains a key resource for law school faculties, legal and medical historians, and anyone with an interest in the history of reproduction in the United States. "Lucidly written, well researched, thorough, and provocative . . . Three Generations, No Imbeciles is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of Buck v. Bell and its implications for ethics, law and public policy."-New England Journal of Medicine "Lombardo reminds us that the same incentives to improve public health and lower tax burdens exist today."-Pathophilia "Startling."-Reason "A sad and fascinating book . . . With his legal and historical background, Lombardo is particularly suited to give us a book that explains a surprisingly ignored injustice, its antecedents and consequences, and helps us to think about the ongoing struggle to find a healthy balance between privacy and government power."-History News Network "This book is a legal and historical masterpiece, combining meticulous ethical analysis with a liveliness that belies its scholarly roots and exhaustive footnotes and research."-PsycCRITIQUES "Compelling and well-researched . . . Three Generations, No Imbeciles gives Carrie Buck's long-untold story the attention it deserves."-Harvard Law Review "In a very readable 279 pages, Paul A. Lombardo sets forth the facts about the eugenics movement in the United Sates."-Virginia Lawyer "Meticulously researched . . . As Lombardo conclusively demonstrates, those who sought to have Buck sterilized did not let the facts get in the way of the story the law required them to tell."-Commonweal "Three Generations provides valuable, new, and timely revelations for students and professional scholars across many disciplines."-Disability Studies Quarterly "For almost 30 years, Lombardo has tried to uncover the full story of the wrongs."-USA Today "Meticulously detailed and researched history . . . this book is enjoyable, thought provoking, and troubling in equal measure. I highly recommend it."-Psychiatric Services "Most thorough examination to date . . . Readers will be both intrigued and disturbed by what they encounter."-H-Law, H-Net Reviews "What makes Lombardo's analysis so important is that issues about the fate of our mutant genes, about the use of technologies to monitor pregnancies at risk for birth defects, and alternatives to relying on chance alone are subverted by our fear of eugenics."-Quarterly Review of Biology "Overall, a fascinating book on one of the darker decisions in US law. An excellent addition to collections on US constitutional law, history, and reproductive rights."-Choice
Paul A. Lombardo (ATLANTA, GA) is a Regents' Professor and the Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law at Georgia State University. The author of A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era, he has played a key role, as both a historian and a lawyer, in the movement to solicit state apologies and legislative denunciations of past eugenics laws.
Preface to Updated Edition Introduction Prologue: The Expert Witness 1. Problem Families 2. Sex and Surgery 3. The Pedigree Factory 4. Studying Sterilization 5. The Mallory Case 6. Laughlin's Book 7. A Virginia Sterilization Law 8. Choosing Carrie Buck 9. Carrie Buck versus Dr. Priddy 10. Defenseless 11. On Appeal: Buck v. Bell 12. In the Supreme Court 13. Reactions and Repercussions 14. After the Supreme Court 15. Sterilizing Germans 16. Skinner v. Oklahoma 17. Buck, at Nuremberg and After 18. Rediscovering Buck Epilogue: Reconsidering Buck Afterword: Looking Back at Buck Acknowledgments Appendix A: The Supreme Court Opinion in Buck v. Bell, by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Appendix B: Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924 Appendix C: Laws and Sterilizations by State Appendix D: Carrie Buck's letters Notes A Note on Sources Index
This updated edition includes a new afterword that identifies the role the Buck story plays in the Supreme Court's review of emerging state laws that seek to limit access to abortion.
