American Iatrogenic Association Library
Information that improves understanding of medical error, philosphy, and practice

States that had eugenic sterilization laws and the number of people sterilized: California, 20,108 Virginia, 7,450 N Carolina, 6,297 Michigan, 3,786 Georgia, 3,284 Kansas, 3,032 Indiana, 2,424 Minnesota, 2,350 Oregon, 2,341 Iowa, 1,910 Wisconsin, 1,823 N Dakota, 1,049 Delaware, 945 Nebraska, 902 S Dakota, 789 Utah, 772 Washington, 685 Mississippi, 683 N Hampshire, 679 Connecticut, 557 Oklahoma, 556 Maine, 326 S Carolina, 277 Montana, 256 Vermont, 253 Alabama, 224 West Virginia, 98 New York, 42 Idaho, 38 Arizona, 30 TOTAL: 63,966 Sources: Paul A. Lombardo, Center for Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia; The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the United States, by Philip R. Reilly. AiA Home Site Contents American Iatrogenic Association 2513 S. Gessner, #232 Houston, Texas 77063 www.iatrogenic.org aia@iatrogenic.org		. . . Carrie Buck is a feeble minded white woman who was committed to the State Colony in due form. She is the daughter of a feeble minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble minded child. She was eighteen years old at the time of the trial of her case in the circuit court in the latter part of 1924. An Act of Virginia approved March 20, 1924, recites that the health of the patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives, under careful safeguard, etc . . . It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. > U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes jr. in 8-1 Buck v. Bell decision declaring Virginia's sterilization law constitutional.