Table of Contents

Preface to Updated Edition
Introduction
Prologue: The Expert Witness
1. Problem Families
2. Sex and Surgery
3. The Pedigree Factory
4. Studying Sterilization
5. The Mallory Case
6. Laughlin's Book
7. A Virginia Sterilization Law
8. Choosing Carrie Buck
9. Carrie Buck versus Dr. Priddy
10. Defenseless
11. On Appeal: Buck v. Bell
12. In the Supreme Court
13. Reactions and Repercussions
14. After the Supreme Court
15. Sterilizing Germans
16. Skinner v. Oklahoma
17. Buck, at Nuremberg and After
18. Rediscovering Buck
Epilogue: Reconsidering Buck
Afterword: Looking Back at Buck
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: The Supreme Court Opinion in Buck v. Bell, by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Appendix B: Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924
Appendix C: Laws and Sterilizations by State
Appendix D: Carrie Buck's letters
Notes
A Note on Sources
Index

Promotional Information

This updated edition includes a new afterword that identifies the role the Buck story plays in the Supreme Court's review of emerging state laws that seek to limit access to abortion.

About the Author

Paul A. Lombardo is a Regents' Professor and the Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law at Georgia State University. The author of A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era, he has played a key role, as both a historian and a lawyer, in the movement to solicit state apologies and legislative denunciations of past eugenics laws.

Reviews

Three Generations provides valuable, new, and timely revelations for students and professional scholars across many disciplines.-- "Disability Studies Quarterly"

Three Generations, No Imbeciles chronicles Buck's tragic life and reviews the larger history of American eugenics in a moving narrative that will appeal to a broad audience of lay readers interested in controversies over reproductive rights, public health, science, and the law.-- "Isis"

Three Generations, No Imbeciles manages to be both a meticulously researched work of history and a compelling story.-- "Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics"

A powerful commentary on the dangers of politicized medicine and social engineering.-- "Magill Book Reviews"

A remarkable work of investigation and narrative synthesis, Lombardo connects Buck v. Bell to a broader debate over the place of eugenics in American life and law . . . Having amassed over two decades of research, including interviewing Carrie Buck, Lombardo is uniquely qualified to tell this story.-- "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography"

A sad and fascinating book . . . With his legal and historical background, Lombardo is particularly suited to give us a book that explains a surprisingly ignored injustice, its antecedents and consequences, and helps us to think about the ongoing struggle to find a healthy balance between privacy and government power.-- "History News Network"

An engrossing look at a shameful case.-- "Booklist"

As a historical endeavor, it is rich and rewarding, permitting the reader a broad understanding of the social, cultural and legal context for the case that inspired Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous quotation, 'Three generations of imbeciles are enough.' . . . Equally important as the excavation of this history is the manner in which Lombardo's writing surfaces the emotional consequences of fertility-related policies.-- "Journal of Legal Education"

Compelling . . . brilliant . . . and refreshing.-- "Comptes Rendus Biologies"

Compelling and well-researched . . . Three Generations, No Imbeciles gives Carrie Buck's long-untold story the attention it deserves.-- "Harvard Law Review"

For almost 30 years, Lombardo has tried to uncover the full story of the wrongs.-- "USA Today"

Heartbreaking and riveting . . . There is likely to be no better account of Buck v. Bell than Lombardo's book.-- "Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences"

Highly recommended for academic, public, and law libraries.-- "Criminal Law Library Blog"

In a very readable 279 pages, Paul A. Lombardo sets forth the facts about the eugenics movement in the United States.-- "Virginia Lawyer"

Law professor and historian Paul Lombardo does a superb job of revealing, for the first time, all the facts in the infamous Buck v. Bell case of the 1920s, the Supreme Court decision ratifying Virginia's compulsory sterilization of 'feebleminded' people.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

Lombardo convincingly shows that the eugenics of the 1920s, despite professional reversals and government apologies, still echoes in discussions of designer babies, grumbling about the costs of social programs and attempts to calculate the financial value of life.-- "Nursing History Review"

Lombardo does an excellent job of meticulously laying out the sham nature of Buck v. Bell, and by the end of the text, the reader is left with no doubt that the case, which has never been overturned, was mired in deceit . . . Fascinating nuggets of racial politics, class inequality, and fear of the female body.-- "Law & Society Review"

Lombardo does full justice to this incredibly important and heartbreakingly tragic Supreme Court decision. His book places in stark relief a horrific miscarriage of justice and shows in full detail how the power of the judicial system can be used to undermine, corrupt, and ultimately destroy any vestige of equal protection under the law for poor, defenseless people in our society. It is a 'must read' for anyone who cares about the rule of law and the cause of social justice.--James H. Jones

Lombardo reminds us that the same incentives to improve public health and lower tax burdens exist today.-- "Pathophilia"

Lombardo tells a compelling and heavily documented story of injustice to society's less fortunate citizens. His sympathy for the abused is evident, but that does not turn Three Generations, No Imbeciles into a polemic . . . Armed with knowledge from this excellent book, we can hope we never return to the mistakes of our past.-- "Internet Review of Books"

Meticulously detailed and researched history . . . this book is enjoyable, thought provoking, and troubling in equal measure. I highly recommend it.-- "Psychiatric Services"

Meticulously researched . . . As Lombardo conclusively demonstrates, those who sought to have Buck sterilized did not let the facts get in the way of the story the law required them to tell.-- "Commonweal"

Most thorough examination to date . . . Readers will be both intrigued and disturbed by what they encounter.-- "H-Law, H-Net Reviews"

Overall, a fascinating book on one of the darker decisions in US law. An excellent addition to collections on US constitutional law, history, and reproductive rights.-- "Choice"

Startling.-- "Reason"

The book is lucidly written, well researched, thorough, and provocative . . . Three Generations, No Imbeciles is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of Buck v. Bell and its implications for ethics, law and public policy.-- "New England Journal of Medicine"

The struggle for justice goes on. Bioethicists typically ask 'ought' questions, but not all follow up with activism. More bioethicists should accept the social activist role. Paul Lombardo demonstrates exactly how it can be done.-- "American Journal of Bioethics"

This book is a legal and historical masterpiece, combining meticulous ethical analysis with a liveliness that belies its scholarly roots and exhaustive footnotes and research.-- "PsycCRITIQUES"

This book is suitable for any audience interested in the history of the eugenics movement in the United States.-- "Metapsychology"

This painstakingly researched book will surely be the definitive study of Buck v. Bell for many years to come.-- "American Historical Review"

What makes Lombardo's analysis so important is that issues about the fate of our mutant genes, about the use of technologies to monitor pregnancies at risk for birth defects, and alternatives to relying on chance alone are subverted by our fear of eugenics.-- "Quarterly Review of Biology"