Cited at Nuremberg: The American Eugenics Movement, its Influence Abroad, the Buck v. Bell Decision, and the Subsequent Bioethical Implications of the Holocaust

Authors

Bessie Blackburn, Liberty UniversityFollow

Abstract

Eugenics was a bioethical movement that captivated many Americans at the turn of the nineteenth century and even into the Progressive era. No event in American history better encapsulates the American eugenics movement than the trial of Carrie Buck and her later forced sterilization. This trial is monumental not only to understanding American eugenic policy, but also international reactions and Nazi Germany’s chilling use of this pseudoscience in the Holocaust. In order to best understand the trial of Carrie Buck, one must look first look at the origins of eugenics, second, the context of the eugenics movement in America and internationally from 1850 onward, and third, at the Buck trial itself. Furthermore, an examination of Nazi use of these ideas from this ideology must be explored in light of these American influences.

Recommended Citation

Blackburn, Bessie (2021) "Cited at Nuremberg: The American Eugenics Movement, its Influence Abroad, the Buck v. Bell Decision, and the Subsequent Bioethical Implications of the Holocaust," Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/ljh/vol4/iss1/1