Today is Tuesday, October 19th, 2021.

On this day in 1927, a 17-year-old woman was forcibly sterilized after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled compulsory sterilization

did not violate the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The case is widely

regarded as one of the court's most damaging decisions. Welcome to Today in True Crime,

a Spotify original from Parcast.

Due to the graphic nature of this crime, listener discretion is advised.

This episode includes references to rape, eugenics, and forced sterilization.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

Today, we're talking about the infamous 1927 Supreme Court ruling on Buck v. Bell.

The case concerned the rights of a woman named Carrie Buck at the height of the U.S.'s eugenics

movement. Now let's go back to October 19, 1927 in Washington, D.C.

Buck v. Bell was a strange case. It hadn't been brought to the highest court in the land

through repeated opposition. Instead, it had arrived there almost as a test to see if the nation was prepared to implement eugenics.

Eugenics is the practice of influencing human evolution by weeding out so-called undesirable traits.

It's famously a tool of white supremacists and

totalitarian states who wish to ruthlessly decide what is or is not beneficial to humanity as a

whole. One of the foundational texts on eugenics in the United States was written by Dr. Oliver

Wendell Holmes Sr. He falsely argued crime could be traced through blood.

He theorized there was a genetic component to lawbreaking. Other researchers agreed with

Holmes' beliefs and eugenics quickly found a stronghold in the United States. The first law to act on these beliefs was passed in 1895 in Connecticut.

It barred mentally ill individuals from getting legally married.

But this didn't go far enough for some groups, like the American Breeders Association.

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