Originally, sterilization was a medical procedure used to make women sterile whose life would be put at risk by future pregnancies. An estimate of 700,000 sterilizations are performed every year here in America (Zurawin, 2012). Eleven million women in America have used it as a means to avoid pregnancy, while one hundred ninety couples worldwide have used it to permanently take pregnancy out of the equation. Despite the purity of sterilization’s original intended use, it has been abused over the years. The malpractice of sterilization came in the form of compulsory sterilization. Compulsory sterilization is to force an individual to go through the procedure to become sterile. This form of sterilization was derived from the belief of Eugenics. …show more content…
A common practice of reinforcing eugenics is the discouragement of reproduction between people, who have genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits; in addition to, encouraging reproduction by people believed to have inheritable traits of optimal quality (Dictionary.com). The use of compulsory sterilization falls in line with the mindset of eugenics’ distaste and avoidance of reproduction occurring between two individuals with perceived genetic defects. For example, a man and women that each have a mental disorder and physical deficiency that runs in their families. These individuals would be deemed unworthy of conceiving a child. This belief lead to the mass sterilization in America, Germany, and Puerto Rico. There were 60,000 compulsory sterilizations in America from 1934 to the 1970's (Kaelber, 2009), 200,000 in Puerto Rico between 1936 and 1960, and 300,000 to 450,000 in Germany in 1945 …show more content…
Compulsory sterilization ruined the lives of 200,000 Puerto Rican women, which stood for a mind boggling eighty percent of the female population. Overpopulation was a serious issue in Puerto Rico from 1920 – 1960, and it became the motive the United States needed to apply the use of compulsory sterilization (Briggs, 2002). By 1930, it was believed that overpopulation and the overabundance of sexual proclivity behind it was the root cause behind the poverty epidemic of Puerto Rico. Around the same time the rate of male unemployment had increased by sixty percent. This only reinforced the belief that overpopulation was fueling the continuing increase of poverty. Later in the 1940’s, the belief of overpopulation being the source of poverty was countered because the capita income had doubled: in addition, it tripled in 1952 (Briggs,
The eugenics movement started in the early 1900s and was adopted by doctors and the general public during the 1920s. The movement aimed to create a better society through the monitoring of genetic traits through selective heredity. Over time, eugenics took on two different views. Supporters of positive eugenics believed in promoting childbearing by a class who was “genetically superior.” On the contrary, proponents of negative eugenics tried to monitor society’s flaws through the sterilization of the “inferior.”
The American Eugenics Movement was led by Charles Davenport and was a social agenda to breed out undesirable traits with an aim of racial purification. Eugenics was a used to breed out the worst and weakest to improve the genetic composition of the human race, and advocated for selective breeding to achieve this. The science of eugenics rested on simple mendelian genetics, which was a mistake because they were assuming complex behaviors could be reduced to simple mendelian genes. After Nazi Germany adopted the ideas behind the American eugenics movement to promote the Aryan race, the eugenics movement was completely discredited.
Neoeugenics is the idea of new, “neo”, eugenics or a new way of creating a healthier race. Eugenics was first defined in the late 1800s by a man named Sir Francis Galton who said that it was basically the study of traits that will cause an advantage or disadvantage in the traits of future generations. Eugenics soon turned from being about the use of artificial selection of breeding to create a stronger species, to being about the advancement of certain races over others. When talking about neo eugenics, it is believed that it may turn into something similar to that of eugenics in that the use of artificial selection would now be used to bring the upper class higher in standards of health and wellbeing as well as beauty. Others believe that the use of neo eugenics will help create a healthier, more stable species. Whether bad or good, the way that eugenics will advance will be in designer babies.
On October 19, 1927, a “feebleminded,” young woman was robbed. This young woman’s name is Carrie Buck and her ability to conceive children was taken from her without her consent or knowledge. This decision would not only impact those already affected by unauthorized sterilization, but for those whom would later be sterilized. The Supreme Court’s ruled the sterilization of Carrie Buck to be constitutional on the grounds of it being better for society, better for the individual, and eugenic evidence.
According to some accounts, the eugenics movement died out in the 1930s. However, the forty two percent of Native American women who were sterilized under questionable circumstances by 1982, stand as testament that eugenics was alive and kicking during the seventies (Define 1997). Sparked by concern about overpopulation in the 1960s, eugenics was legally sanctioned under the Nixon administration (Johansen 1998). This sanctioning was given life in a campaign to sterilize the impoverished. For instance, between 1969 and 1974, the budget for family planning increased from $51 million to more than $250 million (Johansen 1998). This money helped to sterilize between 192,000 and 548,000 women each year between 1970 and 1977 compared to an average of 63,000 a year between 1907 and 1964, a period that included the pinnacle of the eugenics movement (Johansen 1998).
Throughout these initial chapters in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, The World State is shown using science to manipulate society. This serves the World State’s best interests under a guise that it is being used to create a society without the humanity that could make their lives savage. This is unknowingly expertly summed up by Bernard in a repetition of a common phrase “Civilization is sterilization” ( Huxley 64). Sterilization is a reference to a controlled area that is devoid of any unwanted life. This is very similar to the lack of human emotion experienced by the subjects of Brave New World. This is through the creation of subjects as a machine process, the lack of love as a sought after emotion, and the use of scientific
Eugenics- Eugenics is a term coined by Francis Galton in 1883 and it is the belief and practice of improving the genetic quality of the human population. This idea that one could trace hereditary problems and find solutions for them gained significant ground in addressing certain societal issues such as poor people and welfare. Two types of eugenics emerged, positive and negative, but the U.S., negative eugenics was preferred. This is the idea of destroying defectives and degenerates from the population to promote and preserve the fittest, a very social Darwinist idea. This is important to sexuality because many homosexuals were sterilized, thus creating the stigma that homosexuality was a disease that could be cured.
It was also this case, at least in part, which led to the acceptable sterilization of thousands of Americans and around 350,000 people in Nazi Germany in 1933. While there are definitely positive uses for eugenics within today's society including healthy children and a decreased population over time which would require less resources from the planet, there seem to be an outweighing of negative results in the form of forced sterilization, breaches of human rights and an overall misuse of power which could lead to a new threat on par with Nazi Germany.
The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists’ desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society. The American Eugenics Movement attempted to unethically obliterate the rising tide of lower classes by immorally mandating organized sterilization and race based experimentation.
Suffragists fought very hard for nearly a century to get the Nineteenth Amendment passed. Most people are aware of the great efforts by such suffragists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, originating in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. However, what many people do not realize is the eugenic and racist ideas that the suffragists espoused. Why did the suffragists have these ideals, and where did they get them from? The sources discuss the suffragists’ motives in having these ideals, describe how these ideals advanced suffrage, and explain what larger implications this had in America both historically and politically.
The concept of eugenics was not initially intended to prevent overcrowding, however, it would later be used as a form of population control. Eugenics is the idea of improving society by breeding fitter people. Francis Galton was the first person to originate this term and was a major proponent of the concept during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The practice of eugenics was originally performed through the use of selective breeding. Eugenics was a progressive idea, driven by social perceptions. In fact, "many of its most strident advocates were socialist, who saw eugenics as enlightened state planning of reproduction."2 Fearing the degradation of society, the elite desired to prevent further social decay of the world by eliminating individuals who were considered unfit physically, mentally, or socially.
The term eugenics was coined in the late 19th century. Its goal was to apply the breeding practices and techniques used in plants and animals to human reproduction. Francis Galton stated in his Essays in Eugenics that he wished to influence "the useful classes" in society to put more of their DNA in the gene pool. The goal was to collect records of families who were successful by virtue of having three or more adult male children who have gain superior positions to their peers. His view on eugenics can best be summarized by the following passage:
And many stressed the need to protect the sanctity of motherhood and the chastity of white women; abortion, after all, supported the separation of sexual intercourse from reproduction. For many physicians and others, all of these concerns were generally more trenchant in the nineteenth century than the issue of fetal life. Solinger - 5 p.m. To further compound this, Solinger discusses the issue of eugenic laws and the sterilization of individuals who were deemed to be unsuitable for reproduction. These standards applied to women who were either poor, minorities, or women who had a disability (Solinger 2015). Solinger describes the use of “coercion” to get women who fall under these categories to be sterilized (Solinger, 2015).
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
When created in 1923, the American Eugenics Society exemplified an air of reform with a seemingly positive purpose, however this cannot be further from the truth. In reality, the society polluted the air with myths of weeding out imperfections with the Galtonian ideal, the breeding of the fittest (Carison). The founder of the society, Charles Davensport , preached that those who are imperfect should be eliminated(Marks). From the school desk to the pulpit, the fallacies of the eugenics movement were forced into society. Preachers often encouraged the best to marry the best while biology professors would encourage DNA testing to find out ones fate (Selden). A...