BIOL 4104 Chapter : Buckvsbell Reading
Document Summary
[3. 1] carrie and emma buck at the virginia colony. As soon as virginia"s eugenical sterilization act was passed by the general assembly in 1924, virginia colony officials selected 17 year old carrie buck of charlottesville to test the law"s legality. Carrie buck"s foster parents had committed her to the virginia colony shortly after she gave birth to an illegitimate child. The family"s embarrassment may have been compounded by the fact that carrie"s pregnancy was the result of being raped by a relative of her foster parents. This point was never raised in the subsequent court proceedings. Carrie"s mother, emma buck, had previously been committed to the asylum. [3. 2] this marriage certificate shows that carrie"s mother, emma, was married to carrie"s father, although it was claimed that carrie was an illegitimate child. Officials at the virginia colony asserted that carrie and her mother shared the hereditary traits of feeblemindedness and sexual promiscuity.
