Part 9/17:
The infamous 1927 Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell upheld Virginia's sterilization law, which forcibly sterilized tens of thousands over the decades. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing for the majority, famously decreed: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." This decision rested on the unscientific premise that society could prevent "unfit" individuals from reproducing, using the analogy of public health measures like vaccination. Holmes' justification—that society could "prevent" those seen as unfit from propagating—set a legal and moral precedent for eugenics-inspired sterilizations.