Who is Carrie Buck?
Carrie Buck (1906-1983) is a woman who is most well-known for the role she played in the American eugenics movement. She was the victim of a 1924 law in Virginia which mandated sterilization for the so-called feeble-minded, despite challenging the law in court. In retrospect, the treatment of Carrie Buck has been widely condemned, along with the treatment of numerous other institutionalized patients who were sterilized without consent, and sometimes without their knowledge. Carrie was born to Emma Buck, a women who was apparently quite poor, and possibly sexually promiscuous. Carrie was taken from her mother after birth and put into the care of foster parents, doing quite well in school before being pulled out to work around the home. At 17, Carrie Buck became pregnant, and her foster parents committed her to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded; when the baby, Vivian, was born, her foster parents took charge of the baby and Carrie remained in the institution. The
