Lucien Howe (September 18, 1848 – December 27, 1928) was an American physician who spent much of his career as a professor of ophthalmology at the University at Buffalo.
In 1926 he established the Howe Laboratory at Harvard Medical School for research and study of biochemistry, genetics, neurobiology, and physiology concerning the eye.
The eugenics movement sought to prevent the birth of "defectives" through regulation of marriage, involuntary sterilization, or segregation of potential parents deemed genetically inadequate.
Howe headed a committee of the American Medical Association, which collaborated with the Eugenics Record Office to register family "pedigrees" of blind people.
This bond, held till the wife reached the age of 45, would be used to defray any expenses the state incurred as a result of the couple's defective children.