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'Imbeciles' Explores Legacy Of Eugenics In America

Published February 26, 2016 at 1:29 PM PST

Adam Cohen's new book tells the story of the 1927 Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell. The ruling permitted the state of Virginia to sterilize an "imbecile" — a scientific term of the day. Cohen discusses the decision, and its legacy, with NPR's Robert Siegel.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: February 25, 2016 at 9:00 PM PST
In an early version of this story, our guest incorrectly said that Anne Frank died at Auschwitz. She died at Bergen-Belsen.