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72 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 862 (2003-2004)
Eugenics and Compulsory Sterilization Laws: Providing Redress for the Victims of a Shameful Era in United States History

handle is hein.journals/gwlr72 and id is 876 raw text is: Note Eugenics and Compulsory Sterilization Laws: Providing Redress for the Victims of a Shameful Era in United States History Michael G. Silver* Introduction In the early twentieth century, a eugenics movement flourished in the United States. Relying on the then-nascent field of Mendelian genetics, the movement's advocates espoused a deterministic belief that propensity to commit crime, immorality, and other bad acts or traits rest in one's genetic makeup.1 The intellectual and social acceptance of eugenics influenced pub- lic policy and the law perniciously through the passage of compulsory sterili- zation laws in approximately thirty states.2 In 1927, the Supreme Court upheld a challenge to the State of Virginia's sterilization law, which compelled the sterilization of an eighteen-year-old girl.3 In Buck v. Bell, Justice Holmes infamously declared that [tihree gen- * J.D. expected 2004, The George Washington University Law School; B.A., 2000, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. I am grateful to Professor Sonia Suter, who inspired me to research this subject and provided invaluable comments on my drafts. I would like to thank Dave Hardin for guiding me during the early phase of the project and S. Bradley Perkins, Nicholas W. Ivancic, Anne Smetak, Victoria Vron, and the rest of the Law Review staff for skillfully editing this Note. Finally, I dedicate this Note to Stacey Spechler and to my parents, Ronnie and Howard Silver, who have given me tremendous love and support throughout law school. 1 See Paul A. Lombardo, Medicine, Eugenics, and the Supreme Court: From Coercive Ster- ilization to Reproductive Freedom, 13 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL'Y 1, 1-2 (1996). 2 Id. at 1 n.2. 3 Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 205 (1927). April 2004 Vol. 72 No. 4