Video: 'Part 1: Buck v. Bell: SCOTUS Case That Led to Forced Sterilization of 70,000 & Inspired the Nazis'

(Monday, May 2, 1927) — The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, upheld 8-1 today a Virginia law allowing the forced sterilization of people to promote the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.”

The decision was largely seen as an endorsement of negative eugenics—the attempt to improve the human race by eliminating “defectives” from the gene pool.

Video: 'Part 2: Buck v. Bell: SCOTUS Case That Led to Forced Sterilization of 70,000 & Inspired the Nazis'