Buck v. Bell

Oliver Wendell Holmes remains one of the most influential of American legal philosophers. As a student of eugenics, Holmes approved of the social movement that advocated the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population. In the early part of the twentieth century, eugenics was deemed a science, deriving from and embracing Darwinism. At issue in the case of Buck v. Bell was a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including the mentally retarded. The Court concluded that the law did not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite the recognition of the odiousness of forced sterilization in contemporary American law and society, in its day In Holmes’s majority opinion supporting the practice in Buck v. Bell effectively condoned the practice nationwide.