Answer :

Carrie Buck's mother played a critical role in the Buck v. Bell case, which upheld the legality of Carrie's forced sterilization due to alleged hereditary feeble-mindedness, setting a precedent for future sterilization laws in the United States.

Carrie Buck's mother was Emma Buck, and her case, Buck v. Bell, holds a significant place in the history of the United States. Carrie was institutionalized in the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded, and the Supreme Court ruling in 1927 allowed for her to be forcibly sterilized.

This case set a legal precedent for compulsory sterilization and reflected societal and legal attitudes towards eugenics at the time. The ruling was justified by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's statement, 'three generations of imbeciles are enough', implying that both Carrie and her mother were considered unfit for reproduction.