The Sterilization of Herbert Wyatt
In 1927, the US Supreme Court case BUCK vs. BELL set illegal precedent that states may sterilize the inmates of public institutions. At the time, entire families and children were being seized out of their homes that have committed no crimes. Actually, their crime was being poor. Or, simple petty crimes, such as stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family could get you a lifetime of incarceration and sterilization with no due process and no chance of ever leaving. Many of these people were placed in homes for the feeble-minded, or other state-run institutions where they were used as slave labor by the local municipalities. They sterilized them under BUCK vs. BELL because they believed that being an imbecile, epileptic or feeble-minded was a hereditary thing and the inmate should be prevented from passing these defects on to the next generation. My father, Herbert Wyatt, was someone that had done nothing to deserve his fate. However, if this misfortune had not happened to him, I would not be here to tell his story.