Buck v. Bell is one of the saddest cases I have read and once I saw this assignment I knew that I was going to use this case. Carrie Buck was raped by the nephew of her foster mother. The foster family institutionalized her and blamed her for what happened. She was brought to the State Colony Epileptics and Feebleminded which is where her mother was being institutionalized for also being sexually promiscuous. She gave birth at the Colony. Under a Virginia law that allowed for the sterilization of those with mental issues, Buck was the first chosen to be sterilized. Since her mother was already classified as feeble-minded, social workers looked at her daughter who they diagnosed as it too by comparing the eight-month-old to other babies. Carrie ended up being sterilized and it was later determined that she and her daughter both did not suffer from any mental illnesses.
Since I already knew the correct story behind the case, I knew I wanted to start with the correct facts and work towards the decision of the Supreme Court. I thought this was important because, during this time, everyone was focused on the eugenics movement and not on the correct way of diagnosing mental illness. It was hard to find the exact words I needed to really describe the story but the fewer words ended up working better. I tried to break up the lines with some spacing but not enough to change the story. My main goal was to tell Carrie’s story with the correct facts that were ignored by the justices, like NourbeSe Philip in Zong! I felt really bad for the Buck family while I was reading the articles. They all were deemed mentally incompetent because men raped them. It truly is one of the worst decisions because of the comment from Justice Harlan. I knew from the beginning that “three generations of imbeciles are enough” was going to be my ending because that is the justification for sterilizing her.
Skip to content