Carrie Buck
Carrie Buck (July 3, 1906 – January 28, 1983) was the plaintiff in the Buck v. Bell Supreme Court case, which upheld the practice of forced sterilizations.
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Biography
Carrie Buck was born in Charlottesville, the daughter of Frank W. Buck, a tinner, and Emma A. Harlow Buck. Her father died when she was very young. In April 1920 her mother was committed to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded in Lynchburg.
When she was 17, she became pregnant after being raped by a relative of her foster parents. She was sent to the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble-minded near Lynchburg, where her mother had also been a patient. After giving birth to a daughter, Buck was identified as a candidate to be sterilized in order to reduce the likelihood she would have more children. The Buck v. Bell case was a test of Virginia's law that authorized the practice. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that 'three generations of imbeciles' is enough. [1]
The Virginia sterilization law was repealed in 1974. Buck died in 1983 after living in Waynesboro for many years. [2] Carrie Elizabeth Buck Detamore was buried in Charlottesville's Oakwood Cemetery near her only child, Vivian, who had died at age eight.
References
- ↑ Web. Carrie Buck, Virginia's Test Case, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, retrieved April 18, 2012.
- ↑ Web. This Day in Charlottesville History, City of Charlottesville, retrieved April 18, 2012.