The US Supreme Court upheld forced sterilisation.
Three generations of imbeciles are enough became one of law's most shameful sentences.
Buck v Bell was a 1927 US Supreme Court case that upheld forced sterilisation under Virginia law.
Carrie Buck was labelled feeble-minded and used as a test case. She had become pregnant after being raped. The system treated her pregnancy as evidence against her rather than evidence of harm done to her.
The decision gave legal cover to forced sterilisation policies. It helped legitimise the idea that the state could prevent people labelled defective from having children.
This is one of the clearest examples of law, medicine and social prejudice working together against a vulnerable person.
This history matters because it shows what happens when labels become destiny and systems decide someone's future before seeing the person.
A label should never erase someone's rights, voice or humanity.