On October 19, 1927, a “feebleminded,” young woman was robbed. This young woman’s name is Carrie Buck and her ability to conceive children was taken from her without her consent or knowledge. This decision would not only impact those already affected by unauthorized sterilization, but for those whom would later be sterilized. The Supreme Court’s ruled the sterilization of Carrie Buck to be constitutional on the grounds of it being better for society, better for the individual, and eugenic evidence.
Carrie Buck was perceived as being part of the next generation of feeble-minded Bucks after her mother, Emma, gave birth to her and her siblings. Many people of Charlottesville, Virginia witnessed the upbringing of Carrie and saw that she, along
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The Virginia Sterilization Law legalized the sterilization of feeble-minded and epileptic individuals whom were already “lawfully” committed to state hospitals. The board of the State Colony would soon implement the sterilization on its occupants, but they would first need a test case. Carrie would be the first to be sterilized at the State Colony. In order to test the legality of her sterilization, the board would appoint Irving Whitehead to defend Carrie Buck against Albert Priddy, the superintendent of the Colony and the doctor whom performed the sterilization. Whitehead was chosen because of his connections to the Virginia State Colony. Whitehead sat on the very first board of the Colony and it was evident that this influenced his defense of Carrie. The Colony would win the initial case, Buck v. Priddy, because of his inadequate defense and lack of preparation. Buck v. Bell would go on to the Supreme Court in 1927 to argue the constitutionality of her sterilization. It was argued that the sterilization law violated Carrie Buck’s right to the Fourteenth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, and her right to due process of law (Smith and Nelson …show more content…
Albert Priddy testified before the Board of the Colony that the “harmless” operation would help Carrie to be self-sufficient and be released to from the institution. He stood firm with his belief that she could not be returned to society and must be “kept in custody during the period of childbearing” without the sterilization (Smith and Nelson 1989). The Board later claimed that the sterilization would not cause any “detriment to her general health” and would only help her overall welfare (Lombardo 2008). Another “advantage” of Carrie’s sterilization was being reunited with her foster parents. Strode claims that the only thing “prevent[ing] her having an independent home is her child-bearing capacity” and that the Dobbses did not want the “risk” of her conceiving another child (“Buck” 1926,
A well-nourished, well-developed Hispanic female named Anna Garcia standing at 65 inches, 165 pounds and in her late thirties was found dead in her house after her concerned neighbor Doug Greene was suspicions as to why she didn't take her dog out like she did normally, and why the dog was barking constantly for two hours. The police received a call from Greene on August 31st at 9:45 am and arrived at the crime scene at 9:56am.The police found Anna lying face down in the hallway. Authorities observed a pool of blood around her head and some vomit beside her. It was 73 degrees inside Anna’s house, while it was 92 degrees outside. Anna was last seen alive by her former husband, Alex Garcia the night before her death. Investigators measured her rectal temperature, and came to a conclusion that she died at 7:00 am in that same morning. A medical examiner was also called to perform an autopsy to see what really caused Anna's death.
When conducting research for my project, I came across a website that contained a few primary sources regarding the Salem Witch Trials. One of these primary sources was the photo of a legal document explaining the death warrant and reasons for execution of a woman named Bridget Bishop. Bishop was claimed to be a witch in Salem during the year 1692, and the document explaining her significance involving witchcraft resides in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. My thesis for this primary source is that the judge and jury believed they were seeking justice by executing Bishop, a woman whose death was truthfully based on her differences as a person rather than actual crimes she committed.
Kenneth Edelin was a 35 year old third year medical resident at the Boston City Hospital. This hospital was known for many poor coming into it. This was also a place for research. By this time research was still being conducted on fetuses and embryos. When a patient came to the hospital for an abortion she also signed a waiver for them to test on her. They called her “Alice Roe” and she was only 17 years old but had the consent of her mother to proceed with the abortion.This patient was estimated by the supervisor over the residents, Hugh Holtrop, to be about twenty-two weeks pregnant but the other residents Enrique Giminez and Steve Teich disagreed. They estimated that she was about twenty-four weeks pregnant. Edlein was put in charge of doing the
US Supreme Court in 1927, in the case Buck v. Bell put a legal example that states can sterilize public institutions inmates (Lombardo, 2009). The argument of the court was that epilepsy, feeblemindedness, and imbecility are hereditary and it was important to the inmates from passing these defects to other generations. May 2nd 1927, the court ordered Buck Carrie, whom it referred as a feebleminded daughter to get sterilization following the 1924 Virginia act of Eugenical Sterilization. Carrie had a feebleminded daughter and her mother was feebleminded too. The case determined that obligatory sterilization laws did not infringe the due process given by the US constitution 14th amendment. It established the legal mandate and bolstered US eugenics movement for sterilizing over 60,000 citizens in over thirty states. Most of these practices ended in 1970s (Reilly, 1991).
Henrietta was born into a poor, black family. Her father was a tobacco famer and Henrietta never really knew her mother, since she was four years old when her mother died. After her mother’s death, Henrietta spent her childhood living with her grandfather in Clover, Virginia, in what they called the ‘home-house’. When Henrietta was fourteen, her first son Lawrence was born. Four years later, his sister Elsie followed. Elsie was ‘s...
Noonan, John T, Jr. A Private Choice: Abortion in America in the Seventies. Collier Macmillan Publishers, London: 1979.
Carla Washburn, an incredible, inspirational woman that has sadly witnessed the 3 closest male figures in her life all pass on. This has resulted in Carla becoming depressed over the unbearable experience. Carla embraced in giving back to the community and that’s not surprising because she’s a person of spirituality. While, Carla is the client and is suffering through grief, it’s likely she’d benefit immensely from creating a program to work with the kids in the community and may give her a sense of worth she’s been seeking since these 3 tragedies.
When the Supreme Court attained its verdict in Roe v. Wade, it brought up decades of law, which first instituted that the government could not impede on people's personal affairs about reproduction, marriage, or any other feature in their personal life. In this case it was evident that the Supreme Court wasn’t going to conserve the Natural Law, which was a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct.... ... middle of paper ... ... [22] They next referred to the Emolument Clause and to the Electors provisions, which would also exclude most children and anyone unable to “[hold] any office of Profit or Trust.
Born on December 25, 1921, Clara grew up in a family of four children, all at least 11 years older than her (Pryor, 3). Clara’s childhood was more of one that had several babysitters than siblings, each taking part of her education. Clara excelled at the academic part of life, but was very timid among strangers. School was not a particularly happy point in her life, being unable to fit in with her rambunctious classmates after having such a quiet childhood. The idea of being a burden to the family was in Clara’s head and felt that the way to win the affection of her family was to do extremely well in her classes to find the love that she felt was needed to be earned. She was extremely proud of the positive attention that her achievement of an academic scholarship (Pryor, 12). This praise for her accomplishment in the field of academics enriched her “taste for masculine accomplishments”. Her mother however, began to take notice of this and began to teach her to “be more feminine” by cooking dinners and building fires (Pryor, 15). The 1830’s was a time when the women of the United States really began to take a stand for the rights that they deserved (Duiker, 552). Growing up in the mist of this most likely helped Barton become the woman she turned out to be.
The debate of abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades. According to Jone Lewis, “In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820’s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy” (1). This indicates that the abortion controversy has been debated far back into American history. Beginning in the 1900’s, legalized abortion became a major controversy. In 1965, all fifty states in the United States banned abortion; however, that was only the beginning of the controversy that still rages today (Lewis 1). After abortion was officially banned in the United States, groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League worked hard on a plan to once again legalize abortion in the United States (Lewis 1). It wasn’t until 1970 when the case of Roe (for abortion) v. Wade (against abortion) was brought...
In 1971, Norma McCorvey or Jane Roe, filled a case against the district attorney of Dallas County, Henry Wade, because he enforced a Texas law that prohibited abortion unless the abortion was needed medically, to save the mother’s life. Being a single, pregnant woman , Roe did not have the choice to have an abortion because the pregnancy was not endangering her life. Plus, Roe could not afford to travel to have the operation done safely. As a result, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, two lawyers that graduated from the University of Texas Law School, claimed a lawsuit against the abortion laws in Texas because they violated Roe’s constitutional rights. Besides Roe’s two laywers, Hallford, a licensed physician, and a childless married couple known as the Does supported Roe’s case. The lawsuit against Wade was filed in a Texas Federal Court. The Texas Federal Court heard the case on December 13th, 1971 and again, on October 11th, 1972. After the examination of Weddington and Coffee’s argument against Jay Floyd’s, the lawyer for Wade during the first argument, and Robert C. Flower’s, the lawyer for Texas in the second argument, the court ruled in Roe’s favor by claiming that the law did violate the Constitution. Consequently, Wade appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In order to understanding how women have been discriminated against we must know the history behind the most controversial topic in women’s rights, abortion. For decade’s legal scholars, social movement activities, and historians, have agreed whether women actually had rights when it came to abortions and understanding the pro-life feminist reform. In Mary Zeigler, "Women's Rights on the Right: The History and Stakes of Modern Pro-Life Feminism.” Pro-life advocates have argued that “abortions cause more to the woman rather than help them.” (Zeigler233) One of the most popular known cases is Gonzales v. Carhart which attempted to justify abortion restrictions on the very basis of the physical or psychological harms that could or assumed to be caused or produced by the actual procedure.(Zeigler234) However, women protective claims, only one part of larger strategy that this Article calls prolife feminism. The article also identifies potential common ground among those proclaiming to be feminist with different positions on abortions. Both pro-choice and pro-life scholars have written extensively on how to their arguments as forwarding women
as we read the novel we also discover she has no morals. Even though at some point Dreiser claims that Carrie is "the victim of
In August of 1889, Carrie Meeber leaves her small town to find employment in the city of Chicago. Theodore Dreiser, the author of Sister Carrie, informs the reader that, "Self-interest with her was high, but not strong. It was nevertheless her guiding characteristic.". With her youth and innocence she hopes to seek employment so that she can get and buy all the nice things that she wants. Carrie does not have any idea how hard this is going to be.
Millions of illegal abortions were done by the 1950s, and over a thousand women died each year as result. Moreover, millions of women who had illegal abortions were rushed to the emergency ward; some died of abdominal infection, and other, found themselves sterile and chronically ill. In 1969, 75% of the women who died from these abortions were either poor or of color. In the landmark case of Roe v. Wade (1973) the Supreme Court ruled that woman had the right of privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to obtain an abortion, yet, keeping in mind that, protecting the health of the woman and the potential life of the fetus is the main interest. As result of this decision, safe and unpainful abortion services were offered to many women. In addition, some health care centers provided counseling, women’s group offered free referral services, and, non-profit abortion facilities were created. Nevertheless, legalization was not enough to ensure that abortions will be available to all women, women of low income and of color still found themselves without safe and inexpensive abortions. Between the early 1980s, feminist health centers provided low-cost abortions, however, by the early 1990s, only 20% of these centers survived the harassment by the IRS and the competition of other