Eugenics Research Paper

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Eugenics was a movement based on a pseudoscience based on the improvement of the human population by way of controlled breeding to increase the rate of more desirable heritable genes and characteristics. Controlled breeding was done by several means including sterilization and infanticide and commonly occurred throughout the late 19th and 20th century. Even Ancient Greeks and Romans supported infanticide. Famed ancient philosopher Plato writes in The Republic, the government should monitor and control the reproduction of its people because

‘The good must be paired with the good, and the bad with the bad, and the offspring of the one must be reared and of the other destroyed; in this way the flock will be preserved in prime condition.’ This …show more content…

According to this definition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorize a broad range of conditions as DDs, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), cerebral palsy, fragile X syndrome, hearing loss, learning disability, intellectual disability (ID), Tourette syndrome, vision impairment, and others. DDs, such as ID and ASD, affect up to 3 percent of the U.S. population, respectively. When including other developmental disabilities (e.g., ADHD, cerebral palsy, language disorders, learning disorders and others) the prevalence of having any developmental disorder increases to over 15% in children 3 to 17 years of age. These disorders may have a profound impact on patients, families, and society, given the need for potentially lifelong individual and family support or treatment.” …show more content…

Earlier this year, an elderly Japanese woman filed a Supreme Court lawsuit claiming she had been the subject of forced sterilization during her teens thanks to the 1948 Eugenics Protection Law and her intellectual disability. During a news conference on the case, the woman’s sister-in-law said “We stood up so that we can realize a society without discrimination against people with disabilities.” The article also goes on to say note that “The state has not apologized or provided compensation to the around 25,000 people who were sterilized due to mental or other illnesses under the law, which remained in force until 1996, saying it was legal at the time. Of the total, 16,500 people are believed to have undergone the surgery without their consent.” (Kyodo,

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