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individuals.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20090916075528/http://www.in.gov/judiciary/citc/cle/eugenics/index.html "'Three generations of imbeciles are enough': reflections on 100 years of eugenics in Indiana"] (April 11, 2007).  IndianaCourts website, Supreme Court, Courts in the Classroom, Indiana Supreme Court Legal History Lecture Series.  Retrieved on September 15, 2014 from September 16, 2009 archive at Internet Archive</ref> Although the law was overturned by the [[Indiana Supreme Court]] in 1921,<ref>Supreme Court of Indiana (May 11, 1921). [http://web.archive.org/web/20081001183035/http://www.bioethics.iupui.edu/Eugenics/SMith%20vs%20Williams.pdf "Williams v. Smith"]. ''Northeast Reporter'', Indiana edition, vol. 131, p. 2.  Retrieved from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Center for Bioethics website on September 15, 2014 from October 1, 2008 archive at Internet Archive.</ref> the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia Law allowing for the [[Buck v. Bell|compulsory sterilization]] of patients of state mental institutions in 1927; it was in writing this opinion that Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]] Jr. coined the phrase "three generations of imbeciles are enough."<ref>Larson, Edward J. (2004).  [http://books.google.com/books?id=xzLRvxlJhzkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Edward+J.+Larson%22+evolution&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XcMXVMvjAqLv8AH8-oDYCw&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=buck&f=false ''Evolution:  The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory'' [preview&#93;], pp. 194-195. Citing [[Buck v. Bell]] 274 U.S. 200, 205 (1927).  Preview retrieved from GoogleBooks on September 16, 2014.</ref>

individuals.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20090916075528/http://www.in.gov/judiciary/citc/cle/eugenics/index.html "'Three generations of imbeciles are enough': reflections on 100 years of eugenics in Indiana"] (April 11, 2007).  IndianaCourts website, Supreme Court, Courts in the Classroom, Indiana Supreme Court Legal History Lecture Series.  Retrieved on September 15, 2014 from September 16, 2009 archive at Internet Archive</ref> Although the law was overturned by the [[Indiana Supreme Court]] in 1921,<ref>Supreme Court of Indiana (May 11, 1921). [http://web.archive.org/web/20081001183035/http://www.bioethics.iupui.edu/Eugenics/SMith%20vs%20Williams.pdf "Williams v. Smith"]. ''Northeast Reporter'', Indiana edition, vol. 131, p. 2.  Retrieved from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Center for Bioethics website on September 15, 2014 from October 1, 2008 archive at Internet Archive.</ref> the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia Law allowing for the [[Buck v. Bell|compulsory sterilization]] of patients of state mental institutions in 1927; it was in writing this opinion that Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]] Jr. coined the phrase "three generations of imbeciles are enough."<ref>Larson, Edward J. (2004).  [http://books.google.com/books?id=xzLRvxlJhzkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Edward+J.+Larson%22+evolution&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XcMXVMvjAqLv8AH8-oDYCw&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=buck&f=false ''Evolution:  The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory'' [preview&#93;], pp. 194-195. Citing [[Buck v. Bell]] 274 U.S. 200, 205 (1927).  Preview retrieved from GoogleBooks on September 16, 2014.</ref>

[[Nazi Germany]] under [[Adolf Hitler]] was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of "[[racial hygiene]]". Among other activities, the Nazis performed extensive experimentation on live human beings to test their genetic theories, ranging from simple measurement of physical characteristics to the horrific experiments carried out by [[Josef Mengele]] for [[Otmar von Verschuer]] on twins in the concentration camps. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi regime forcibly sterilized hundreds of thousands of people whom they viewed as mentally and physically "unfit", an estimated 400,000 between 1934 and 1937. The scale of the Nazi program prompted American eugenics advocates to seek an expansion of their program, with one complaining that "the Germans are beating us at our own game".<ref>Quoted in Selgelid, Michael J. (2000), "Neugenics?" ''Monash Bioethics Review'', vol 19, no. 4., pp. 9-33.</ref> The Nazis went further, however, killing tens of thousands of the institutionalized disabled through compulsory "[[euthanasia]]" programs.<ref>The Nazi eugenics policies are discussed in a number of sources. A few of the more definitive ones are Proctor, Robert (1988), ''Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) and Kuntz, Dieter, ed. (2004), [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/deadlymedicine/ ''Deadly medicine: creating the master race'' [online exhibit&#93;]](Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).  On the development of the [[racial hygiene]] movement before National Socialism, see Weindling, Paul (1989), ''Health, Race and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945'' (New York: Cambridge University Press).</ref>

[[Nazi Germany]] under [[Adolf Hitler]] was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of "[[racial hygiene]]". Among other activities, the Nazis performed extensive experimentation on live human beings to test their genetic theories, ranging from simple measurement of physical characteristics to the horrific experiments carried out by [[Josef Mengele]] for [[Otmar von Verschuer]] on twins in the concentration camps. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi regime forcibly sterilized hundreds of thousands of people whom they viewed as mentally and physically "unfit", an estimated 400,000 between 1934 and 1937. The scale of the Nazi program prompted American eugenics advocates to seek an expansion of their program, with one complaining that "the Germans are beating us at our own game".<ref>Quoted in Selgelid, Michael J. (2000), "Neugenics?" ''Monash Bioethics Review'', vol 19, no. 4., pp. 9-33.</ref> The Nazis went further, however, killing tens of thousands of the institutionalized disabled through compulsory "[[euthanasia]]" programs.<ref>The Nazi eugenics policies are discussed in a number of sources. A few of the more definitive ones are Proctor, Robert (1988), ''Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) and Kuntz, Dieter, ed. (2004), [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/deadlymedicine/ ''Deadly medicine: creating the master race'' [online exhibit&#93;]](Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).  On the development of the [[racial hygiene]] movement before National Socialism, see Weindling, Paul (1989), ''Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945'' (New York: Cambridge University Press).</ref>

They also implemented a number of "positive" eugenics policies, giving awards to "[[Aryan race|Aryan]]" women who had large numbers of children and encouraged a service in which "racially pure" single women could deliver illegitimate children. Allegations that such women were also impregnated by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officers in the ''[[Lebensborn]]'' are common, but unproven. Also, "racially valuable" children from occupied countries were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by German people. Many of their concerns for eugenics and racial hygiene were also explicitly present in their systematic killing of millions of "undesirable" people including [[Jew]]s, [[Gypsies]], [[Jehovah's Witness]]es and [[homosexuality|homosexuals]] during [[the Holocaust]] (much of the killing equipment and methods employed in the death camps were first developed in the euthanasia program). The scope and coercion involved in the German eugenics programs along with a strong use of the rhetoric of eugenics and so-called "racial science" throughout the regime created an indelible cultural association between eugenics and the [[Third Reich]] in the postwar years.<ref>See Proctor, ''Racial hygiene'', and Kuntz, ed., ''Deadly medicine.''</ref>

They also implemented a number of "positive" eugenics policies, giving awards to "[[Aryan race|Aryan]]" women who had large numbers of children and encouraged a service in which "racially pure" single women could deliver illegitimate children. Allegations that such women were also impregnated by [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officers in the ''[[Lebensborn]]'' are common, but unproven. Also, "racially valuable" children from occupied countries were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by German people. Many of their concerns for eugenics and racial hygiene were also explicitly present in their systematic killing of millions of "undesirable" people including [[Jew]]s, [[Gypsies]], [[Jehovah's Witness]]es and [[homosexuality|homosexuals]] during [[the Holocaust]] (much of the killing equipment and methods employed in the death camps were first developed in the euthanasia program). The scope and coercion involved in the German eugenics programs along with a strong use of the rhetoric of eugenics and so-called "racial science" throughout the regime created an indelible cultural association between eugenics and the [[Third Reich]] in the postwar years.<ref>See Proctor, ''Racial hygiene'', and Kuntz, ed., ''Deadly medicine.''</ref>

The second largest eugenics movement was in the [[United States]]. Beginning with [[Connecticut]] in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or [[feeble-minded]]" from marrying. In 1898 [[Charles Benedict Davenport|Charles B. Davenport]], a prominent American [[biology|biologist]], began as director of a biological research station based in [[Cold Spring Harbor]] where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the [[Carnegie Institution]] to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The [[Eugenics Record Office]] opened in 1910 while Davenport and [[Harry H. Laughlin]] began to promote eugenics.<ref>The history of eugenics in the United States is discussed at length in Mark Haller, ''Eugenics: Hereditarian attitudes in American thought'' (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963) and [[Daniel Kevles]], ''In the name of eugenics: Genetics and the uses of human heredity'' (New York: Knopf, 1985) ISBN 0-520-05763, the latter being the standard survey work on the subject.</ref>

The second largest eugenics movement was in the [[United States]]. Beginning with [[Connecticut]] in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or [[feeble-minded]]" from marrying. In 1898 [[Charles Benedict Davenport|Charles B. Davenport]], a prominent American [[biology|biologist]], began as director of a biological research station based in [[Cold Spring Harbor]] where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the [[Carnegie Institution]] to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The [[Eugenics Record Office]] opened in 1910 while Davenport and [[Harry H. Laughlin]] began to promote eugenics.<ref>The history of eugenics in the United States is discussed at length in Haller, Mark (1963), ''Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought'' (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press) and Kevles, Daniel (1985), ''In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity'' (New York: Knopf), ISBN 0-520-05763, the latter being the standard survey work on the subject. See [[Daniel Kevles]]</ref>

During the 20th century, researchers became interested in the idea that mental illness could run in families and conducted a number of studies to document the heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.  Their findings were used by the eugenics movement as proof for its cause.  State laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation.  These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century.  By 1945 over 45,000 mentally ill individuals in the United States had been forcibly sterilized.

During the 20th century, researchers became interested in the idea that mental illness could run in families and conducted a number of studies to document the heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.  Their findings were used by the eugenics movement as proof for its cause.  State laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation.  These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century.  By 1945 over 45,000 mentally ill individuals in the United States had been forcibly sterilized.