Buck v. Bell

Laws similar to the Virginia statutes were passed in 30 other states, leading to the forcible sterilization of more than 50,000 people, including Carrie Buck's sister Doris.

Harry L. Laughlin, author of the model sterilization act adapted by Aubrey Strode for Virginia, made his draft available to state and foreign governments, and his model became Germany's Hereditary Health Law in 1933. In appreciation, he was awarded an honorary degree from Heidelberg University in 1936. After World War II, defending the forcible sterilization of 2 million people, Nazi lawyers cited this law and pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, had declared such laws constitutional.

Buck v. Bell has yet to be reversed by the Supreme Court. In 1973, Roe v. Wade guaranteed women the right to make their own decisions concerning abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. The decision, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, balances the interests of the state and the woman and finds in favor of the woman's right of privacy. Nonetheless, citing Buck v. Bell, Justice Blackmun specifically denies "the claim . . . that one has an unlimited right to do with one's body as one pleases."