Topic: Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough”

So wrote Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Buck v. Bell, a 1927 Supreme court case upholding a Virginia law that authorized the state to surgically sterilize certain “mental defectives” without their consent. The fascinating and disturbing history of the case is covered in a recent USA Today article. Carrie Buck was a patient in […]