Introduction - What is Eugenics?
Eugenics comes from the Greek roots for “good” and “origin,” and involves applying principles of genetics and heredity for the purpose of improving the human race. It is the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve the future generations of humans. Eugenics is the philosophy and social movement that argues that it is possible to improve the human race and society by encouraging reproduction by people with desirable qualities and discouraging reproduction by people with “undesirable” traits. Eugenicists use selective breeding or artificial selection as a means to achieve the goal of improving the genetic make-up of the human race.
The History of Eugenics
Eugenics was coined by Francis
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She had been sent to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded because her foster parents deemed her a moral delinquent. It was after this that the eugenics movement really took off in the USA. 33 states operated sterilization programs during the 20th century and not only the mentally ill were targeted. The definition of what was 'unfit to procreate' expanded to include people with not only mental illness, but also alcoholics, poor people, woman who were deemed promiscuous, children who were victims of rape, epileptic people, criminals, deaf or blind people and people labelled 'feeble-minded'. Since woman bore children, they were held more accountable than men for the reproduction of the less 'desirable' members of society. Eugenicists therefore mainly targeted woman in their efforts to regulate the birth rate, to 'protect' white racial health and to get rid of the 'defectives' of society. Native American woman were victims of sterilisation abuse up into the 1970's. An organisation called WARN (Woman of All Red Nations) threatened that if Native American women had more children, they would be denied welfare …show more content…
The Nazis believed that humankind is not something universal and eternal, but rather a mutable species that can evolve or degenerate. Man can evolve into superman, or degenerate into a subhuman. The main ambition of the Nazis was to protect humankind from degeneration and encourage its progressive evolution. This is why the Nazis said that the Aryan race, the most advanced form of humanity, had to be protected and fostered, while degenerate kinds of Homo sapiens like Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill had to be quarantined and even exterminated. They believed the Aryan race had the finest qualities - rationalism, beauty, integrity and diligence and therefore had the potential to turn man into superman. Other races, such as Jews and blacks, possessed inferior qualities, as well as people with disabilities.These ideas about eugenics and the belief that the Nazis were superior eventually helped lead to the Holocaust. Since they didnt want these people in Germany anymore, they decided to get rid of them. They forced more than 400 000 people (starting off with the ones who had any kind of disability) to be sterilised and then killed another 300 000 people with disabilities in a program called Action T4. This program consisted of places like the Hadamar and Hartheim Euthanasia Centres, where
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.
Eugenics was a proposed way to improve the human species by encouraging or permitting reproduction of people with desirable genetic characteristics. Higham says, "The dazzling development of modern genetics around 1900 revealed principles of heredity that seemed entirely independent of environmental influences." (Doc 4) In Grant's "Passing of the Great Race", he claims bad gene mixture based upon differences in skin, eye color, and lack of working abilities.
The eugenics movement was a period of time when it was believe that the genes of your father and mother gave rise to any and all traits, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and moral. Essentially, eugenics established that all of a persons appearance, skill, and potential was rooted in your genes.
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.
The history of harmful eugenic practices, spurring from the Nazi implementations of discrimination towards biologically inferior people has given eugenics a negative stigma (1,Kitcher, 190). Genetic testing, as Kitcher sees it through a minimalistic perspective, should be restrained to aiding future children with extremely low qualities of life (2,Kitcher, 190). He believes that genetic engineering should only be used to avoid disease and illness serving the role of creating a healthier human race. He promotes laissez-faire eugenics, a “hands off” concept that corresponds to three components of eugenic practice, discrimination, coercion and division of traits. It holds the underlying works of genetic testing, accurate information, open access, and freedom of choice. Laissez-faire eugenics promises to enhance reproductive freedom preventing early child death due to genetic disease (3,Kitcher, 198). However there are dangers in Laissez-faire that Kitcher wants to avoid. The first is the historical tendency of population control, eugenics can go from avoiding suffering, to catering to a set of social values that will cause the practice of genetics to become prejudiced, insensitive and superficial. The second is that prenatal testing will become limited to the upper class, leaving the lower class with fewer options, creating biologically driven social barriers. Furthermore the decay of disability support systems due to prenatal testing can lead to an increased pressure to eliminate those unfit for society (4,Kitcher, 214).
The beginning of the Eugenics Movement all started at Cold Spring Harbor, New York. The United States coined the term Eugenics from Great Britain in the early 1900s. In the year 1910, a man by the name of Charles B. Davenport founded the Eugenics Records Office (ERO). The funds for this building came from Mrs. E.H. Harriman (“Eugenics: Did the Eugenics Movement Benefit the United States?”). The movement was initially meant to purify the Gene Pool. One of the ways this was done was through immigration control. The mixing of genes (mixing of different races) was extremely frowned upon for the unknown outcomes that would eventually surface. One issue that was very high priority was “feeblemindedness” within the gene pool; the ERO wanted to remove this mutated gene to make the non-feebleminded people prosper, making them the “strongest” gene carriers (“Learning from History: Long Island’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, circa 1920.”). The bulk of the movement happened within three decades, in order to start the change towards fitter families (“Learning from History: Long Island’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, circa 1920.”).
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 Nazi’s perpetrated many horrors during the Holocaust. They enacted many cruel laws. They brainwashed millions into foolishly following them and believing their every word using deceitful propaganda tactics. They forced many to suffer doing embarrassing jobs and to live in crowded ghettos. They created mobile killing squads to exterminate their enemies. Finally, as part of “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, they made concentration and killing camps. Another thing the Nazi’s did was to use eugenics as another mean to micromanage the population. What is eugenics, you might ask? It’s the field of scientific study or the belief in genetically improving qualities, attributes and traits in the human race and/or improving the species as a whole—usually done by controlled/selective breeding. Those with positive, desirable, and superior traits are encouraged to reproduce and may be given monetary incentives by the government to have large families. Those with negative, undesirable, or inferior traits may be discouraged from having offspring. They may be sterilized, or undergo dangerous medical procedures or operations with high mortality rates. I chose this topic because it appealed to me and seemed interesting. In the following paragraphs, the tactics, methods, and propaganda the Nazi’s used will be exposed.
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:
lackluster response from eugenicists to enter the first wave feminist movement. This research aims therefore to examine the reciprocity of support seen in the eugenics movement and first wave feminism. Through examining the popularity, structure and ideologies of first wave feminism and the eugenics movement, it can be ultimately demonstrated that the eugenics movement tolerated feminism as long as it conformed to its ideal vision of motherhood, gender role and sexuality. While first wave feminist movements suffered from disorganization and a lack of political power, eugenics was a well-funded, worldwide popular and political powerhouse movement. Therefore, eugenics saw no need to conform its ideologies to other progressive movements like feminism
Eugenics has impacted the reproduction cycle of black women for years. According to google, eugenics is the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. It was developed by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race. The Eugenics movement began in the U.S in the late 19th century. It was mainly use to stop the transmission of negative or undesirable traits from generation to generations. The abortionist spent time tracking family histories and concluded that people deemed to be unfit more often came from families that were poor, low in social standing, immigrant, and other minorities. The abortionist plan was to sterilize unfit individuals to prevent them from passing on their negative traits. The committees were convened to often solutions to the problem of growing number of undesired individuals in the U.S. populations. This movement led to African Americans abortions rate to be high because they sterilized African Americans so they were not able to have kids/offspring. During that time period 65,000 Africans Americans women was sterilized without consent while having other medical procedures done. Margaret Sanger was a strong believer of Eugenics.
The treatment of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi’s can be described as actions that could only be done by a totalitarian state. Hitler believed in eugenics, the idea of improving a race by selective breeding. Nazi ideology of the Jewish race was severe anti-Semitism and pure hatred. The Nazi policy towards the Jews has been said to be the most brutal and horrific example of anti-Semitism in history.
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...