“Many people who were classified as feebleminded would now be called mildly retarded, learning disabled, or simply underachievers. Although the eugenicists saw the Buck family as a pedigree of degeneracy, many would now say that they had few problems a bit of money, education, and opportunity would not have solved. Their only sin was to have been born poor women in the impoverished South….Carrie Buck was sterilized because it was thought that she carried a gene that condemned her and her offspring to substandard intelligence and immoral behavior. Hers was deemed a worthless lineage to be snuffed out.”
—None Without Hope: Buck vs. Bell at 75 (Dolan DNA Learning Center)
The history of eugenics is closely tied with racism and elitism, supported by pseudo-scientific claims that have long since been debunked. While the study of genetics is not the same thing as the social practice of eugenics (as a reader reminded me a few months ago when I ranted against a comment made by James Watson), the successful sequencing of the human genome raises interesting questions. The cerebral Sci-Fi movie GATTACA explores some of them quite well.
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Hold on, now... America is a big place, with a lot of different people in it. Just because a group of people advocated a certain position in the past doesn't mean that "America" agreed with that position. Remember, half of America went to war against the other half over the issue of slavery. Many of the people who were targeted by eugenics movements were (and are) Americans, too.
The mainstreaming of special ed students has led to a real revolution in the American education system, and in culture in general.
I realize that recent changes don't mean that racism is "over" in America, of course...
I am shocked that this kind of behavior was allowed in the United States. But then again I should not be. The practice of Eugenics, I feel, was used as a tool to control the population in America. It also proves that America really wanted to eliminate any other race other than European American.
Anonymous, if you click on the link to the DNALC article, that will be a good start towards finding your answers.
I read somewhere that Carrie Buck was threatened with institutionalization. Did she spent time in an institution? And if so, which one? Where was it? How long was she there?
i am freaked out how can so many people have my name i am special
You're right, Carrie, it sure is.
Carrie buck is my name and this i scary