I follow NPR quite closely and I recently came across this story which is relevant to our discussion of eugenics and forced sterilization. Buck v. Bell was a case in which the Supreme Court upheld the State of Virginia’s right to sterilize a woman who was deemed “feebleminded.” Adam Cohen, author of the book “Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck,” talks about his research concerning the United States’ history with the eugenics movement.
I think the most important point in this news story is its discussion of eugenics and the Nazi party. Often, popular conceptions of eugenics are that the Nazis were the inventors and the biggest contributors. However, Cohen discusses the fact that eugenics existed way before the Nazi party, and much of what the Nazis practiced originated in the US. In addition, Cohen cites how the anti-immigration laws in the Unites States were created in order to “protect” the gene pool, and ultimately contributed to Nazi genocide by denying those victims safety in the United States.
Feminist and Queer Disability Politics 