Adam Cohen’s book 「Imbeciles」 details how Carrie Buck, shown here with her mother, Emma, in 1924, came to be at the center of a Supreme Court case that legalized forced sterilization for eugenic purposes.
亞當·科恩的著作《低能兒》，詳細記述了卡麗·巴克（上圖左，與母親艾瑪攝於1924年）的傳奇經歷，她如何成為了美國最高法院強制絕育合法案的中心人物。
我們翻譯這篇文章的理由
「基因編輯嬰兒」遭到全世界聲討，也讓優生學這一概念重回大眾視野。追求後代的優越若是越過了個人與家庭的層面，又會發展到什麼程度？歷史上發生過一些值得我們深思的事件，例如，20世紀初，美國的老羅斯福總統寫信給長島冷泉港優生學改革者達文波特時說：「我們不能允許錯誤類型的公民生育後代」；1927年，美國最高法院在惡名昭著的巴克訴貝爾案件中，支持絕育法律符合憲法；二戰期間，希特勒推行的優生學超出了絕育的範疇，直指大屠殺與種族滅絕。這些舊優生學的問題在於國家的不中立，導致承重的代價和責任落到了弱勢者身上，讓他們不公平或非自願受到隔離或被迫絕育。後來自由市場優生學繼之而起，讓人們有意識地通過「基因超市」訂製子女。受到了許多英美政治哲學家支持，但德國最傑出的哲學家哈貝馬斯卻表示反對。這也引發了許多思考：被設計者的自主權問題、共同參與者的公平問題、個體健康安全問題、女性生育問題、平等和正義問題等。優生學是一門系統工程，涉及醫學、遺傳學、生物學、婦產科學、人口學、社會學、法學、經濟學、倫理學等多學科，對於任何一個國家都不容忽視。
——朱小釗
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強制絕育：優生學的人種「淨化」論
作者： Andrea DenHoed
譯者：泮海倫
校對：朱小釗
推薦：劉小康
策劃：朱小釗
The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement
那些在美國優生運動中被遺忘的教訓
Carrie Buck was nobody you would have heard of. She was born in 1906 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Soon afterward, her father either abandoned the family or died—there’s no reliable record—leaving Carrie and her mother, Emma, in dire poverty. As a toddler, Carrie was taken in, with the approval of a municipal court, by a well-to-do couple, John and Alice Dobbs, who asked to become her foster parents after seeing Emma on the street. Carrie lived with the Dobbses and went to school through the sixth grade, after which they pulled her out of school so that she could do housework full time. She cleaned their house and was hired out to clean neighbors』 homes, until, at seventeen, she was discovered to be pregnant—she later said that she』d been raped, by Alice Dobbs’s nephew—at which point her guardians moved to have her declared mentally deficient, although there was no prior evidence that this was the case. They then had her committed to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded.
卡麗·巴克是個岌岌無名的平凡女子。1906年，她出生於維吉尼亞州的夏洛茨維爾。出生後不久，巴克的父親不知是拋妻棄子還是意外死亡（具體原因無法考據），留下巴克與母親艾瑪兩人相依為命，窮苦度日。後來，一對有錢夫婦約翰·多布斯與愛麗絲·多布斯碰見了流浪街頭的艾瑪。經過市政法庭批准，他們收養了小巴克。巴克在養父母家生活，上完六年級就被迫輟學，終日做家務。她不僅要打掃自家，還要去鄰居家有償打掃，直到十七歲，她懷孕了。後來巴克表示自己正是被愛麗絲·多布斯的侄子強姦的。但在當時，儘管事件發生之前沒有任何可靠證據，多布斯夫婦仍宣稱巴克心智不健全，並將她送到了位於維吉尼亞州的「癲癇和智障人士收容所」。
dire / ˈdaɪə / adj. very serious 極其嚴重的；危急的
When Carrie was sent to the Virginia Colony, in 1924, the forward thinkers of America were preoccupied by the imagined genetic threat of feeblemindedness, a capaciously defined condition that was diagnosed using often flawed intelligence tests and by identifying symptoms such as moral degeneracy, an overactive sex drive, and other traits liberally ascribed to poor people (especially poor women) who were seen as having stepped out of line. (Just a few years before Carrie was committed to the Virginia Colony, Emma was also sent there. It seems that she had turned to drug use and prostitution—although it’s hard to say, since many female vagrants were labelled prostitutes.) A sloppy reading of Gregor Mendel’s pea pods and Charles Darwin’s theories gave a scientific veneer to the conclusion that many social ills were caused by the proliferation of the wrong sort of people and that they could be neatly nipped in the bud with the intervention of eugenics—a term coined, in 1883, by Darwin’s half-cousin Francis Galton, who declared it 「a virile creed, full of hopefulness.」 Soon, the United States, along with Germany, was at the forefront of the movement to improve the human species through breeding. Scientific American ran articles on the subject, and the American Museum of Natural History hosted conferences. Theodore Roosevelt, Alexander Graham Bell, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and many other prominent citizens were outspoken supporters. Eugenics was taught in schools, celebrated in exhibits at the World’s Fair, and even preached from pulpits. The human race, one prominent advocate declared in 1909, was poised 「to dry up the springs that feed the torrent of defective and degenerate protoplasm.」
1924年，巴克被送到收容所。當時美國先鋒的思想家們正沉浸在對弱智基因的莫名恐慌中。弱智在廣義上通常是由一些漏洞百出的智商測試所界定的，主要表現為道德淪喪、情慾旺盛以及一些行為出格的窮人（尤其是貧困婦女）身上所背負的罪名。（在巴克被遣送去收容所的前幾年，她的母親艾瑪也因嗑藥賣淫被送去。不過實情不明，畢竟當時流落街頭的女子都被當成妓女。）對孟德爾豌豆實驗和達爾文進化論一知半解的人就會得出一個偽科學的結論：許多社會問題都是由劣種基因的傳播造成的，而優生學可以從源頭解決這些問題。優生學一詞，由達爾文的表弟弗朗西斯·高爾頓於1883年首次提出，他將其稱為「為人類帶來希望的偉大綱領」。很快，美國與德國率先興起了優化基因的運動。美國科普雜誌《科學美國人》上刊登了相關文章，美國自然歷史博物館也舉行了相關會議。西奧多·羅斯福（美國前總統）、亞歷山大·格雷厄姆·貝爾（電話發明者）、小約翰·戴維森·洛克菲勒（石油大王洛克菲勒之子）等知名人士都公開支持優生運動。學校教授優生學，世博會上展示優生學，甚至教堂裡也宣揚優生學。一位在當時頗具影響力的優生學擁護者宣稱：「人類要抽乾劣質退化基因的源頭。」
sloppy /'slɒp.i]/ adj. not taking care or making an effort 草率的，馬虎的
veneer / vəˈnɪə / n. an outer appearance of a particular quality that hides the true nature of sb/sth 虛假的外表；虛飾
poised / pɔɪzd / adj. in a position that is completely still but is ready to move at any moment 處於準備狀態；蓄勢待發
譯註：20世紀初以來，一大群傑出、博學的美國人陷入了執念：即危險的低劣民族充斥了全美，必須採取緊急的補救措施。紐約頂尖的醫生威廉·羅賓遜博士為激進的種族主義代言，他宣稱天性低劣的人「從一出生起就沒有權利，但既然他們生了下來，理當沒有權利再繁育後代」。另一位醫生、《遺傳和人類進步的關係》一書的作者W.鄧肯·麥金主張：「為防止那些我們認為毫無價值、不該享有人類權利的人繁衍後代，最簡單、最善意、最人道的方法就是將之溫和、無痛地處死。大多數人認為這個問題是由兩方面原因造成的，疏忽大意、不節制生育的美國人生出了太多有缺陷的孩子；同時，政府又不限制從落後國家來的移民，增加了無窮無盡的低劣人口。
1926年，在費城舉辦的萬國博覽會上，美國優生學學會設立了展臺，用一臺機械計數器顯示：美國每48秒就出生一個「低等」人，而每7分半鐘才出生一個「高等」人。計數器上循環顯示的相對速度生動地表明了低等人是何等迅速地充斥全美，讓它成為了博覽會上最受歡迎的展臺。——《那年夏天》
The Virginia Colony was one of many facilities for the disabled that were founded in the Progressive Era, partly to provide care for a vulnerable population and partly to remove it from the gene pool, by sequestering those individuals during their fertile years. (On the other side of the coin, Jill Lepore has written about how modern marriage therapy grew out of one man’s effort to promote 「fit」 unions.) Between 1904 and 1921, the rate of institutionalization for feeblemindedness nearly tripled. Carrie was just one of this crowd, except that she happened to arrive at the Virginia Colony right at the moment when its superintendent, Dr. Albert Priddy, was looking to transform his institution from a genetic quarantine center to a sort of eugenics factory, where the variously unfit could be committed for a short time, sterilized, and then released, like cats, back into the general population, with the happy assurance that they would never reproduce.
維吉尼亞州的收容所是「進步時代」建立的眾多場所之一。一方面旨在為弱勢群體提供保障，另一方面也是通過隔離育齡期的殘障人士，從而將劣質基因從人類基因池中徹底抹去（另一方面，吉爾·萊伯雷曾寫道，現代婚姻療法來源於有人想要提倡 「門當戶對」的婚姻）。1904至1921年間，低能人士被送往收容所的比率翻了兩倍。而巴克僅僅是其中一員，唯一不同的在於在她被送往收容所時，收容所的負責人阿爾伯特·普裡迪博士正計劃將收容所從基因隔離中心改造成一個優生工廠。收容所暫時接收各種殘障人士，就像給寵物貓絕育一樣，將他們強制絕育後再將他們釋放，回歸人群中，但他們終於再也無法生育了。
譯註：進步時代在美國歷史上是指1890年至1920年期間，美國的社會行動主義和政治改良紛紛湧現的一個時代。一些進步人士，特別是經濟學家們支持用優生學作為解決過大或不良家庭的集體主義解決方案，希望避孕節育會幫助家庭少生優生。然而，沒有主要國家、州郡或地方計劃支持或認可優生學。進步領導人如赫伯特·克羅利和沃爾特·李普曼表達了他們經典的自由性顧慮，擔心個人受到集體主義和國家主義的束縛。天主教雖然支持集體主義，但反對優生學節育。（維基百科）
A number of states passed laws permitting eugenic sterilization in the early twentieth century, some of which were subsequently struck down in court. Virginia passed its law in 1924, largely thanks to Priddy’s advocacy, but he was advised not to carry out any sterilizations until the law had been tested in court as far as appeals would take it. For this, he needed a patient to pin his legal case on. Carrie was a desirable candidate for several reasons. She had been declared a middle-grade moron—a technical designation, based on I.Q., that placed her relatively high on the intelligence scale, above the 「idiot」 and 「imbecile」 classifications and just below normal. Morons were considered particularly dangerous: they were smart enough to pass undetected and possibly breed with their superiors. Carrie, moreover, had had a child as an unmarried teenager, demonstrating the heightened sexuality and fertility—or 「differential fecundity」—said to be common among the mentally deficient. Her mother and daughter had been labelled defective as well—the latter, still an infant, without any testing—providing evidence that Carrie’s reported shortcomings were hereditary. All of this added up to a terrifying spectre: Carrie was a walking womb, a pot of genetic poisons that might seep into purer bloodlines. And that is how Carrie Buck came to be at the center of the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, which, in an 8–1 decision, made forced sterilization for eugenic purposes legal in the United States.
20世紀早期，美國許多州都通過了支持優生絕育的法律條文，其中有些法律後來陸續在法庭上被駁倒。維吉尼亞州正是於1924年通過絕育法案，主要是因為普裡迪博士大力擁護優生絕育。有人建議該法在上訴審程序之後通過後，他再進行絕育。若想優生絕育的提案通過，普裡迪博迪需要找一個病人來證明他的提案。從多方面來看，巴克是不二人選。首先，經過智商測試，她是一個專業評級為中度痴愚，這在智力測評中是較高的智力水平，比「白痴」和「低能兒」等級要高，僅次於「正常人」。但這種人恰恰是最危險的：他們的智商足夠瞞天過海，隱藏自己的缺陷，與正常人結合。再者，巴克在青少年時就未婚先孕，代表她情慾旺盛，又好生養，抑或「生育能力異於常人」，這些特徵常見於智力缺陷者。另外，她的母親以及女兒也都被認為有缺陷，儘管她的女兒尚在襁褓中，未經任何測試。這一切都成為巴克身上的缺陷可遺傳的鐵證。以上種種加劇了恐慌，巴克就像一個行走的子宮，又像一個裝滿了劣質基因的毒藥罐，一招不慎就會汙染了正常人純正的血統。卡麗·巴克就這樣站在了美國最高法院巴克v.貝爾一案的風口浪尖。最終，美國最高法院以8：1的優勢通過了強制優生絕育的法案。
譯註：訴訟進行過程中，維吉尼亞隔離區主任阿爾伯特·普裡迪逝世，繼任者為約翰·亨德倫·貝爾，因此判決書上將此案稱為巴克訴貝爾案。巴克訴貝爾案是美國一個關於優生學和強制絕育有關的案件。判決結果由法官小奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯於美國聯邦最高法院在1927年做出。判決結果認為，為了保護國家及人民的健康，為智力受損者進行強制絕育手術並沒有違反美利堅合眾國憲法第十四條修正案。該判決結果被認為是擁護消極優生學的代表。巴克訴貝爾案為美國其他各州的強制絕育法背書，雖然許多州早已有強制絕育法，但甚少執行。在巴克訴貝爾案判決結果出爐後，許多州皆根據維吉尼亞州的法律修改自州法規。最高法院至今仍未推翻該判決結果。只有一名大法官皮爾斯·巴特勒不同意多數意見，但他沒有為自己的異議提供書面解釋。霍姆斯得到了其他所有法官的支持，包括首席大法官及美國前總統威廉·塔夫脫，以及持自由派立場的路易斯·布蘭代斯。（維基百科）
「Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck,」 by the journalist and lawyer Adam Cohen, gives a detailed account of the many forces that converged to bring about the Buck decision, tracing the intersecting paths of the people involved. He begins with Dr. Priddy, who was a true believer in the pure-blooded future. Priddy began pushing for legislation permitting eugenic sterilizations after he was sued by a patient whom he』d sterilized without her consent. He turned to a friend, a lawyer and politician named, who emerges as a fascinatingly banal character in Cohen’s account. Strode apparently wasn’t wholeheartedly in favor of the cause, but he did his job, drafting the law, suggesting the test-case approach, and representing the Colony in court. He argued the case before the Supreme Court, won, and then basically never mentioned it again. Carrie’s attorney in the case, selected by her court-appointed guardian, was a man named Irving Whitehead, a childhood friend of Strode’s and a former board member for the Colony. He collaborated with Priddy and Strode on the appeals process and handled Carrie’s case in a thoroughly negligent way.
記者兼律師的亞當·科恩在其著作《低能兒：最高法院、美國優生學以及卡麗·巴克的絕育》中詳細分析了造成巴克案最終結果的種種原因，以及追溯了案件中其他相關人士之間的瓜葛。他首先分析了普裡迪博士。普裡迪博士堅定地相信人類在未來會純種化。他未經病人同意，強制對其進行絕育，被告上了法庭。這件事之後，他開始奮力爭取優生絕育合法化。普裡迪向他的朋友奧布裡·史多德求助，史多德是一名律師兼政客，在科恩筆下他十分迂腐。儘管史多德並不認可強制絕育，但他還是完成了所受委託，起草法案、收集判例，並代表收容所出庭。他在最高法院上為此案辯護，贏了之後就幾乎再也沒提及此事。而巴克的辯護律師，由法庭為她指定的監護人選派，名叫歐文·懷特海德，不僅是史多德的童年玩伴，還是收容所的前董事會成員。在上訴過程中，他與普裡迪 、史多德勾結，對巴克的辯護也是非常敷衍。
Strode wrote his legislation based on a model law drafted by the biologist Harry Laughlin, who was the director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Eugenics Record Office (an epicenter for research in the field) and perhaps the most influential eugenics advocate in the country. If Strode is Eichmann in this story, then Laughlin is Goebbels. (The Nazi comparison feels justified here, if only for its literal relevance: Laughlin corresponded with German eugenicists and was enthusiastic about Hitler’s leadership, praising him for realizing that the 「central mission of all politics is race hygiene.」 He was also a driving force behind the Immigration Act of 1924, which set strict quotas on various undesirable races, including Jews. He urged maintaining these quotas when, not many years later, large numbers of Jews were trying to flee Europe.) The team in Virginia asked Laughlin to be an expert witness in the Buck case, and he was happy to oblige. Without meeting Carrie, he submitted a notarized statement saying that she had a 「record during life of immorality, prostitution, and untruthfulness」 and belonged to 「the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.」 He supported her proposed sterilization as a 「potential parent of socially inadequate or defective offspring.」
史多德在起草絕育法案時參考了生物學家哈利·拉夫林起草的示範法。當時，哈利·拉夫林是冷泉港實驗室優生學檔案室（該領域的研究中心）主任，也可能是美國最具權威的優生學擁躉。如果說史多德在此案件中是猶太屠夫艾希曼，那麼拉夫林就是戈培爾（將他們比喻成德國納粹是因為拉夫林與德國優生學家們陣線一致，他們擁護希特勒的領導，高度讚揚希特勒，推崇他「所有政治的核心任務都是為了種族優生」的想法。拉夫林還是1924年移民法案的推動者，該法案為各種族設立了嚴格的移民配額，以限制猶太人等不受歡迎的種族移民。不久後，大量猶太人試圖逃離歐洲，他主張美國依舊維持這些配額）。收容所邀請了拉夫林作為專家證人出庭，他欣然同意。儘管與巴克素不相識，他仍遞交了公證聲明，宣稱她「一生道德敗壞，賣淫為生，滿嘴謊話」，屬於「懶惰、無知、卑微、反社會的南方貧窮白人。」他支持對巴克進行強制絕育，因為她「極有可能生出危害社會、有先天缺陷的子女。」
譯註：阿道夫·艾希曼，納粹德國前高官，也是在清洗猶太人中執行「最終解決方案」的主要負責者，被猶太人稱為「納粹劊子手」。
保羅·約瑟夫·戈培爾，德國政客。其擔任納粹德國時期的國民教育與宣傳部部長，擅講演，被稱為「宣傳的天才」，以鐵腕捍衛希特勒政權和維持第三帝國的體制。
ERO：位於美國紐約州冷泉港的優生學記錄辦公室是一個研究機構，收集有關美國人口的生物和社會信息，從1910年到1939年，作為優生學和人類遺傳研究的中心。檔案室緊靠著名珠寶大亨蒂芙尼家族的莊園，第一任所長是哈佛大學生物學家查爾斯·達文波特。達文波特認為，人類狀況的方方面面都可用優生學解釋：包括肥胖、犯罪，撒謊或欺騙傾向，甚至對海洋的熱愛。在達文波特的領導下，優生學檔案室還對種族混合的有害影響做了一些研究。達文波特解釋說：「人們常常發現混血兒有著蓬勃的雄心和內驅力，但智力低下，這讓他們很不幸福、對自己的命運不滿、叛逆感強烈······混血兒是混合不當的人，是不滿足、不安分、效率低下的人。」達文波特認為，為安全起見，對低劣和存在缺陷的人不光要絕育，還要閹割，以消除其欲望，斷絕其繁殖能力。《那年夏天》
Racial hygiene：種族優生，是一種由政府挑選出公認最強健、聰明和有道德的人來培育下一代的制度，與公共衛生和優生學有密切關聯。過去為達成目的曾用的手段包括放逐、隔離、強制絕育，或甚至滅絕各種不同的精神障礙、人種、身體殘疾、犯罪記錄和宗教信仰的人或團體。
美國南方鄉村地區貧窮白人被視為較低的社會階層和不體面的生活方式的象徵。對他們還有「白色垃圾」的貶稱。在使用這個詞的時候，人們往往特指一些生活在社會邊緣，被主流社會視為危險分子的人。他們常和犯罪沾邊，行為不可預測，對權威、法律和道德缺乏尊重。
Oliver Wendell Holmes was on the Court when the case was tried and wrote the majority opinion. Cohen pays particular attention to his role, arguing that Holmes’s reputation as a paragon of democratic wisdom is largely undeserved, and that he was, in reality, a flinty character and an arrogant élitist whose decisions favored the powerful and whose ostensibly progressive opinions were arrived at through illiberal rationale. This reading is certainly borne out by the decision he wrote for Buck v. Bell, which is five paragraphs and contains several coolly vicious flourishes, such as 「It is better for the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.」 He declared, in reference to Carrie’s family, that 「three generations of imbeciles are enough.」
案件審判時，大法官奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯也在場，並撰寫了主要意見書。科恩尤其關注霍姆斯在案件中發揮的作用，他認為霍姆斯徒有虛名，不足以稱為彰顯民主政治智慧的典範，本質上只是個冷漠、自大的精英主義者，那些看似正義的決斷實則專為權貴服務，那些看似進步的觀點實則內核狹隘。科恩之所以寫這本書，正是因為霍姆斯為巴克訴貝爾案寫的判決書。判決書共有五段，辭藻浮華，字裡行間充滿了冷漠與惡意，例如「與其等著處決他們犯罪的後代，或是眼睜睜看著這些孩子們因為愚笨而活活餓死，不如防止這種惡果代代相傳，世界將會變得更美好。」關於巴克一家，他寫道「三代低能就夠了。」
flinty /'flɪn.ti/ adj. severe and determined 強硬的；堅定不移的；冷峻的
Cohen provides a detailed backstory for each character who appears, wandering sometimes confusingly far afield. But the panoramic view is instructive: one can see these men marching their agendas forward over bridges formed by social connections, whether it’s Priddy asking a friend to write him a law, Holmes being recommended for the Supreme Court by a fellow Boston Brahmin, or Laughlin getting his job at Cold Spring Harbor because he bonded with its founder over their shared love of chicken breeding. Cohen writes that there was widespread skepticism about eugenics among those whom Oliver Wendell Holmes once referred to as 「the thick-fingered clowns we call the people,」 but the opposition wasn’t large or organized enough to effectively counter the influential network behind the movement.
科恩詳細交代了每個事件相關者的背景資料，有時內容豐富到讓人忘記了這本書的主題。但總體觀點還是鞭辟入裡的：我們能看到這些人如何運用人脈關係達成自己的目的，無論是普裡迪請朋友起草法案，霍姆斯經波士頓婆羅門同伴的舉薦進入最高法院，還是拉夫林因為和冷泉港實驗室創始人同好養雞而得到工作。科恩寫道，那些「劣等人」被霍姆斯稱為「手指粗大的小丑」,他們普遍都懷疑優生學，但他們缺乏組織與規模，因此難以有效地對抗優生運動背後強大的人際關係。
譯註：在19世紀，有一波美國白人卻深受印度婆羅門制度啟發，在美國東海岸打造了一個屬於他們自己的種姓制度，並自稱「波士頓婆羅門」。1860年，本文中大法官霍姆斯的父親老奧利弗·霍姆斯在《大西洋月刊》雜誌上發表了一篇名為《新英格蘭地區婆羅門》的文章，一些殷實的美國人接受了這種稱呼。老奧利弗出身于波士頓精英家庭，在哈佛大學工作。從他的文章中可以看出，他很清楚自己含著金鑰匙出生，而且他心安理得享有這些特權。他為這種特權辯，稱他們有權凌駕於他人之上並不是因為出身好或者運氣好，而是因為內在品質。他說：我們的特權來自於秩序，就好像最好的水果來自於最好的根。
Carrie herself all but disappears in the book. This isn’t Cohen’s fault: unlike the men mentioned above, she wasn’t the sort of person to leave behind an archive. Cohen, in fact, does an admirable job collecting scraps of information about her life. She was sterilized soon after the trial, and eventually released from the Colony. She was married in 1932, and again in 1965, after her first husband died. Her daughter, who was raised by the Dobbses, died in 1932; Carrie wasn’t told about her death until months later. Her own mother, Emma, died in 1944, and Carrie found out when she arrived for a visit, two weeks after the funeral. Carrie was evidently a devoted wife who enjoyed reading the newspaper and doing crosswords and never had much money. People who knew her said that they never noticed any signs of mental deficiency. In 1980, some reporters found her and asked what she thought about the Supreme Court case that bore her name. (No one seems to have asked her before.) She said that she would have liked to have a couple of children, and that she hadn’t fully understood the nature of the sterilization procedure until several years afterward. She died in 1983, in a home for the indigent elderly.
但這本書幾乎沒有巴克本人的介紹。這也怪不得科恩，巴克不像以上提到的這些男人，她這樣的小人物不可能有豐富的檔案資料。事實上，科恩還是成功收集到了她個人生活的一些蛛絲馬跡。法庭判決後，巴克很快就接受了絕育手術，也終於離開了收容所。1932年巴克結婚，第一任丈夫死後，她於1965年再婚。她的女兒由多布斯夫婦撫養，1932年便夭折；孩子死後幾個月巴克才得知死訊。她的母親艾瑪死於1944年，巴克去探望時才得知，當時艾瑪的葬禮已經過去了兩個禮拜。巴克還顯然是個賢惠的妻子，她喜愛讀書看報，做填字遊戲，一輩子清貧。認識她的人都說從未覺得她智力低下。1980年，媒體找到她，並詢問她對自己的名字被用來命名最高法院案件有何感想（在此之前，似乎從沒有人問過她）。她說，自己本想生幾個孩子，當時也不明白絕育法案的實質，直到幾年過後才明白。1983年，巴剋死於貧苦老人收容所中。
譯註：巴克的女兒叫薇薇安，人們說她智力低下，只因為有個杜工看了她一眼認為她「有些地方不太正常」。但該社工接著又主動補充說：「我應該說，或許我對她母親的認識使得我在這方面心存偏見。」薇薇安才剛6個月大，當時沒有任何測試能判定這麼小的孩子的心智能力。事實上，薇薇安後來表現出了正常、甚至高於一般人的智力。她8歲時因腸道疾病死了，但她當時的學習能力完全不弱，有一次甚至還上了光榮榜。她的妹妹也被絕育，但其本人毫不知情。人們告訴她，那是在給她治療闌尾炎。——《那年夏天》
Thirty-two states passed eugenic-sterilization laws during the twentieth century, and between sixty and seventy thousand people were sterilized under them. The rhetoric of the movement toned down after the U.S. went to war with Germany; most American eugenicists abandoned their explicit praise of the Nazi project, and the field dwindled as an area of officially sanctioned research. (The disassociation did not go both ways: Buck v. Bell was cited by the defense at Nuremberg.) But the sterilization rate remained high even after the Second World War. So many poor Southerners underwent the procedure that it became known as a 「Mississippi appendectomy.」 It was only in the nineteen-sixties and seventies, with evolving attitudes toward civil and human rights, that states began repealing their sterilization laws.
20世紀，美國有32個州通過了優生絕育法案，六七千人被強制絕育。美國與德國開戰之後，關於優生運動的宣揚才漸漸平息。美國的優生學家們不再公開支持這項納粹運動，官方也逐漸禁止進行優生學研究。（優生學在德國受到追捧，納粹在紐倫堡審判中引用巴克訴貝爾案為自己辯護）然而，第二次大戰之後，絕育率仍然居高不下。眾多南方窮人接受了絕育手術，以致產生了「密西西比闌尾切除術」這樣的戲稱。一直到二十世紀六七十年代，民權與人權意識覺醒，各州才開始廢除強制絕育法案。
tone down to make something less forceful or offensive, usually a piece of writing or a speech 使（通常指文章或講話）緩和；使溫和
The culminating shock of 「Imbeciles」—a book full of shocking anecdotes—is the fact that Buck v. Bell is still on the books and was cited as precedent in court as recently as 2001. Forced or coercive sterilizations never entirely went away either. In 2013, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that at least a hundred and forty-eight female prisoners in California were sterilized without proper permission between 2006 and 2010. Last year, a district attorney in Nashville was fired for including sterilization requirements in plea deals.
《低能兒》一本中滿載軼事，其中最令人咋舌是巴克訴貝爾案直到2001年還在法庭上被引作例證。強制絕育從未塵封於歷史深處。2013年，美國調查報告中心揭露，2006至2010年間，至少148名女囚犯未經許可慘遭絕育。去年，一名納什維爾地方檢察官因在認罪協商中對被告提出絕育要求而被開除。
譯註：澳大利亞的優生學主要通過文化潛移默化的影響，主要針對原住民，或通過移民政策來調整未來人口的種族成分，俗稱「白澳大利亞政策」。幾年前，印度中部的查蒂斯加爾邦有至少12名女性死於絕育手術，該手術是以控制人口來減輕貧困的政策的一部分，付給女性一定的酬金以換取其實施絕育。秘魯總統阿爾韋託·藤森就曾批准過針對原住民的性絕育措施，旨在削減人口規模，大約有30萬人為此做了絕育手術。2015年底至2016年初，加拿大廣播委員會推出了一系列深度案例報導，涉及到近來被絕育的第一民族女性，她們也是在未經同意的情況下就做了絕育手術。——AEON ：Eugenics never went away
Despite these contemporary remnants of America’s involvement in eugenics, and despite the fact that the movement shaped national policy and held sway in the upper reaches of society for many years, this chapter of American history is surprisingly absent from the common conception of the country’s past. It’s not that it has been ignored by historians or journalists. The New Yorker ran a lengthy four-part series on eugenics in 1984, and a number of books have been published on the topic. Many of these works approach the story of American eugenics as though it will be a surprise to the reader, which is probably a safe bet. Of the two other books on Buck v. Bell that have appeared in the past ten years, one has the subtitle 「The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America’s Quest for Racial Purity,」 while the other ends by noting that the history of eugenics in the U.S. is 「often forgotten.」 Cohen, too, writes that 「Buck v. Bell is little remembered today.」 Yet it seems that the collective forgetfulness is not a matter of some well of information remaining untapped but of our inability or unwillingness to soak up what is drawn out of it.
儘管優生運動在如今仍有殘餘，儘管它曾影響重大國策，多年來一直是上層階級的主流思想，但美國人在談及過去時都忽略了這段歷史。並不是歷史學家或新聞記者們對它不夠關注。《紐約客》曾在1984年發表過四篇關於優生學的系列文章，相關話題的著作也公開發表過許多。許多作品都將美國優生運動視為一段鮮為人知的歷史介紹給讀者，不失為一種恰當的做法。過去十年內，還有其他兩本以巴克訴貝爾案為主題的著作，其中一本的副標題為「強制絕育的隱秘歷史以及美國種族純化運動」，而另一本的結尾提到美國優生學歷史常被遺忘。科恩也不例外，他在書中寫道「現今人們沒有把銘記巴克訴貝爾案銘記於心」。但是現在看來，這段歷史的集體失憶並不是因為尚有大量隱情等待挖掘，而是因為我們不能夠也不願意從中吸取教訓。
sway/ sweɪ / n. power or influence over sb 統治；勢力；支配；控制；影響
a safe bet something that is likely to happen, to succeed or to be suitable 很可能發生的事；有望成功的事；合適的東西
a safe bet something that is likely to happen, to succeed or to be suitable 很可能發生的事；有望成功的事；合適的東西
譯註：1984年《紐約客》Daniel J. Kevles https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/annals-of-eugenics
What is hardest to forget about 「Imbeciles」 is the stream of grandiose invective against the supposedly unfit—the diatribes concerning 「germs of dependency and delinquency」 and the 「world peopled by a race of degenerates and defectives.」 It’s a language that combines the detachment of scientific terminology with the heat of bigoted slurs. It’s clearly from another time, but, lacking any lip service to equality and opportunity and the other touchstones of American political rhetoric, it also seems to come from another country. This is not how we talk about ourselves. And yet there are passages that sound startlingly familiar. In the debate over the Immigration Act of 1924, which excluded eugenically undesirable races from the U.S., a senator from Alabama declared, 「We are coming to a pitiful pass in this great country when it is unpopular to speak the English language, the American language」—a lament that might have been taken from yesterday’s paper, except that he was bemoaning the proliferation of Yiddish.
看完《低能兒》一書，印象最深刻的就是那些對所謂不健全人士的無端指責，用詞包括「癮症和青少年犯罪的源頭」「這個世界被一群墮落的蠢人擠滿了」。他們所運用的語言，既缺乏科學術語的支持，又帶有偏執的辱罵意味。顯然，這種語言來自另一個時代。同時，這些論調絲毫沒有體現對於公平和機會的支持，也不像美國式的政治口號，這讓人仿佛置身另一個國家。這聽起來與美國人口中的自己截然相反。與此驚人相似的論調還有許多。1924年移民法案將優生運動排斥的種族擋在美國國門之外。在該法案引發的討論中，阿拉巴馬州一名參議員曾稱，「在美國這個偉大的國家，我們竟落到如此這般田地，再也不是人人說英語了，我們國家自己的語言失去了它曾經的地位」。這聽起來就像我們能從昨天的報紙上看到的悲嘆，只不過他感嘆的是意第緒語（猶太人的語言）在美國的興起。
grandiose / ˈɡrændiəʊs / adj. seeming very impressive but too large, complicated, expensive, etc. to be practical or possible 華而不實的；浮誇的；不切實際的
diatribe / ˈdaɪətraɪb / n. a long and angry speech or piece of writing attacking and criticizing sb/sth （無休止的）指責；（長篇）抨擊，譴責
It’s impossible, especially, to read 「Imbeciles」 without thinking of the current election cycle. Although the concerns of the eugenics movement don’t map neatly onto today’s political divides, patterns of thought are repeated: fears of procreation and infiltration still have force, although they’re directed not at 「hopelessly vicious protoplasm」 but at 「anchor babies」; instead of the pure blood of the Nordic races, we hear invocations of that other superior species, the Winners. The 2016 Presidential campaign has reverberated with appeals to strength and victory and virility and contempt for weakness and failure and foreigners, hitting notes of blatant ugliness that we’re not used to hearing in the public sphere. The response in some quarters has been bafflement, as though this way of speaking had materialized out of nowhere. But perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to a friend, about his pleasure in writing the Buck decision, 「Sooner or later one gets a chance to say what one thinks.」
對美國選舉活動不了解，是無法讀懂《低能兒》的。儘管對優生運動的憂慮不是今天主要的政治分歧，但類似的思維模式卻始終在重現：很多人還在擔憂繁衍與滲透的問題，也許他們不再排斥 「可悲又劣質的基因」，但卻排斥「定錨嬰兒」；今天的政治主張不再追求純真的北歐血統，卻希望成為更高級的人種。2016年大選充斥著對於力量、勝利、陽剛之氣的追求，對弱者、失敗者和外國人嗤之以鼻，公然說出這番醜陋的言論在我們以前在公共領域裡很少出現。某些群體的言論也一直令人困惑，似乎他們說話的方式是憑空而來的。但這也不足為奇，正如奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯在給朋友的信中寫道自己撰寫巴克案的判決書時內心的快樂，「一個人遲早會有機會去表達心中所想。」
譯註：消極優生學的聖經是麥迪遜·格蘭特所著的《偉大種族的消逝》。這本書出版於1916年，內容恐怖卻極為流行。格蘭特認為，真正優秀的人種是所謂的「北歐人種」，基本上指的是除了愛爾蘭外所有北歐地區的人。他將歐洲人分為三個等級，北歐人種、阿爾卑斯人種和地中海人種，越靠南的人種越低劣。
「定錨嬰兒」，又被譯作「拋錨嬰兒」「先遣嬰兒」（anchor babies），這個刺耳的詞語多被用來形容由不具備美國合法移民身份的父母生在美國，並利用「屬地國籍」政策自動成為美國公民的嬰兒。
音頻可聽NPR 播客 Hidden Brain <Emma, Carrie, Vivian: How A Family Became A Test Case For Forced Sterilizations>
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/17/695574984/emma-carrie-vivian-how-a-family-became-a-test-case-for-forced-sterilizations
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千萬年來，人類先祖通過反覆選育特定性狀的作物，培育出了早期的五穀雜糧。近百餘年，人們又從孟德爾的豌豆雜交實驗獲得啟發，正式開啟了科學育種的篇章。而在動物，尤其是與人親近的寵物、家畜身上，人類也沒有停止過定向選育的步伐。從「自古以來」溺殺女嬰的「傳統」、到納粹政權明目張胆的「生命之泉」計劃[《我的孩子來自生命之泉》，手機遊戲]，從立法強制特殊人群絕育、到編輯嬰兒基因，即便沒有所謂「優生學」的存在，「人類」，這個自傲為萬物靈長的物種本身，都難逃被種種強有力的手腕強制「選育」。可惜，性狀突變與基因變異無時不刻、無遠弗屆地存在著。即便是所謂「純種」，譬如現代皺眉縮臉的沙皮犬，與它們百年前精神矍鑠的祖先也決然不同。此外，育種本身存在放大基因缺陷的風險，譬如折耳貓、金毛犬都存在遺傳的關節病、心臟病。換言之，現存人類如果都成為了具備絕對近似基因的「純血、純種」的「優秀種族」，那麼，只消一場特定疾病就能抹去這個「優秀人種」絕大多數人的性命。並且，究竟要誰來決定什麼是「優秀」和「劣等」性狀呢？中學裡我們了解到，鐮狀細胞病會引發貧血。然而恰恰因為患者的血紅細胞發生了變異，於是對瘧疾這樣的惡性疾病產生了免疫。我們自以為的「正常環境」裡所認為的「劣等基因」，在特定的環境下卻成了救命的「優秀基因」。所有的基因也好、性狀也罷，都不過是特定環境的一時產物。[《基因傳》，https://book.douban.com/subject/27168433/]那些暫時讓人覺得「不適合」的、「不正常」的個體體徵，無論來源於天生還是人工，自然將難以獲得繼承、從而被篩選掉，也就不存在隨隨便便能「汙染人類基因池」的優生學杞人之憂。嫌那些或有形或無形的手伸得不夠長、管得不夠寬的人群，其實正是將人類整個物種推上絕路。若將「優生學」信仰推而廣之為「社會達爾文主義」、乃至臭名昭著的「種族主義」，屆時人們迎來的，絕不只是性別比例失調那麼「簡單」的問題。可惜，這樣的思想遺毒在上升到人人喊打之前，卻往往具備了強大的迷惑性。[「為什麼我周圍一些中產階級的子女會崇尚社會達爾文主義？」，https://www.zhihu.com/question/37294960]
下文選自[比爾·布萊森《那年夏天：美國1927》https://book.douban.com/subject/26911121/]三K黨與「優生學」運動第303-312頁。在人們賦予20世紀20年代的所有標籤裡（爵士時代、咆哮時代、鼓吹時代、浮華時代）之外，還有一個更為貼切的標籤：嫌惡時代。在美國的歷史上，或許再也沒有哪個時期有這麼多人毫無理性、全方位地嫌惡他人。勞克林有可能是20世紀對科學的尊嚴踐踏程度最大的美國人。 勞克林的攻擊計劃從三個方面展開：「絕育、大規模監禁、全面限制入境。」為推進這些目標，勞克林創辦了名字威風凜凜、充滿復仇氣息的「切斷美國人口缺陷遺傳最佳實踐手段研究及報告委員會」，並為自己設定了任務：一勞永逸地根除美國低劣人口的繁殖。與此同時，勞克林還不懈地努力根除、限制各地的低劣人種。美國眾議院移民歸化局任命他為專家顧問，指派他判定不同種族的優劣。為讓議員們相信改革需求多麼迫切，勞克林在會議室裡掛滿了流著口水的精神缺陷人士的照片，說他們都是新近的移民，並在照片上寫下一行字：「他們攜帶了美國未來人口的遺傳物質。」美國國會抵擋不住委員會的壓力，也抵擋不住勞克林的可怕宣傳，於是迅速推出了1921年《限制移民法》（Dillingham Immigration Restriction Act），緊接著又是1924年的《民族來源法》（National Origins Act）。這一切加在一起結束了美國的開放移民政策，到1927年，美國移民管理局從埃利斯島上趕出去的人比放進美國的人更多。
聯合國人口基金會在1979年於中國籤署了5000萬美元的資助項目，資助計劃生育，詳情請見<聯合國人口基金對華無償援助簡況 http://gjs.mofcom.gov.cn/article/al/ap/200608/20060803004053.shtml>
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