Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Tunick, Mark

Abstract

Ninety years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Virginia statute allowing state actors to forcibly sterilize those with hereditary forms of intellectual disability, in Buck v. Bell. Fifteen years later, the Court readdressed the concept of compulsory sterilization in the 1942 case, Skinner v. Oklahoma. Skinner v. Oklahoma failed to overturn Buck v. Bell, and as a result, the Supreme Court left an opening for state actors to forcibly sterilize members of their population. I consider the history of forced sterilization and the broad spectrum of views present today. In questioning if there’s a right to procreate, this thesis concentrates on various scenarios when compelling state interests are so strong that the infringement of that right may be warranted. If an individual were to waive that right, at what point should the means of coercion be deemed illegitimate?

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

44 p.

Identifier

FA00012635

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