Carrie Buck Analysis

Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and The Sterilization of Carrie Buck is a controversial and eye-catching investigation on one of the many dark secrets in United States history. The author, Adam Cohen, dives deep into the tragic story and emerges with multiple theories on the impact and implications the case Buck v. Bell will have on the not only U.S. history, but historical event such as the coming of the second world war. However, Cohen main purpose for writing this book was to expose the hierarchy and influence that people in power have, in creating unjust and unethical decisions (the eugenics sterilization), by dissecting and analyzing the story of the wrongfully exploited, Carrie Buck. Cohen begins by exploring the

Piddy was a profound medical doctor and a former member of the House of delegates for Virginia, which led to him becoming the director of the Colony of Epileptics and Feeble-minded and completely immersed in the eugenics movement that was sweeping the nation during that time. From the reading, it was difficult to differentiate between whether the patients or the doctor was truly feebleminded. Dr. Piddy used of vocabulary towards the ones deemed feebled such as “unfortunate ‘creatures’” and in response to Caroline Wilhelm, social worker, to the placement of Carrie’s child was to talk to him once they were “disposed of” (Cohen, 27-28 & 43). Cohen depicts him as an overly obsessed man trying to tackle and solve the world’s problems by any mean necessary, even if that mean violating the rights and the bodies of those that supposedly unfit the gene pool. Though he character was questionable, he drive was not. With his widely known status, he “endorsed eugenic sterilization” and projected about the “increase in ‘epileptics and mental defectives’” (Cohen, 78). He status and knowledge on feebleminded people further persuade and set into law for the acceptance of the eugenic sterilizations and more importantly sterilize the prime target, Carrie

The organization had many features that pushed for “investigations of communities, families, and individuals” for the label and weed out the feebleminded, which would lead to mass sterilization once the law was finally passed (Cohen, 115). These powerful figures dug and planted seeds of doubt and deceit for people to rat out and make communities self-destruct from baseless accusations. Cohen follows with the Nazi being a creation from the eugenic practices, even noting a letter written by Laughlin about problems overpopulation of Jews that frightfully preluded the coming of the second world war (Cohen, 125). Laughlin continued to provoke by trying to expand the sterilization laws to the general public, which is Cohen’s main argument about the powers ruling against human ethics (Cohen, 141).
Cohen stand firm in his beliefs about the importance and impact of the case for Buck v. Bell, as it shadows the role and the effect that the people that are in charge of the justice play on the ruling. Cohen supports his claims by connecting like part to his ideas and extensively covering the topic of ethically humane treatment and the importance of choosing representative that protect the beliefs of the public and not their personal belief and relationships with their fellow elite. I found to follow and agree with Cohen claims, however all in its