The Misapplication of Eugenics

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The concept of eugenics has to do with the belief or practice of improving the genetic quality of the human race (“Eugenics” 2010). The concept was first introduced by Francis Galton, a researcher who wished to apply Darwin’s theory of evolution to the human race. Much like many endeavors that start off with good intentions, the results of applying this concept in real life were gross crimes against humanity. The eugenics movement in the early 20th century perverted the original concept by employing morally objectionable techniques including forced sterilization, marriage restrictions, segregation, internment camps, and genocide (Black 2012). In War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race, Edwin Black discusses the root of the eugenics movement in the United States of America and how this ultimately influenced the horrifying actions taken by the Nazis in pursuit of the pure Aryan race.
The first seed of perversion that led to these heinous undertakings is the misunderstanding of genes following their discovery in the late 19th century. The wealthy upper class took this discovery as justification for their racist sentiments; the poor are poor because of their bad genes. This misconstrued idea of bad genes in the gene pool created a fictitious problem that needed to be solved. If the poor and weak lower class exist as they do because of their insufficient genes, then weeding these genes out of society in general would surely further society as a whole. The man who encompassed this bigoted sentiment was Charles Davenport. This man was able to establish many institutions dedicated to the research of “eugenics” of this sort by being funded by the likes of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and other not...

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... human nature to immediately notice why others are different from oneself and because of this, bigotry and segregation will never truly cease to exist and that manipulation over the human genome will only exacerbate this.

Works Cited

Black, Edwin. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race. Dialog Press, 2012. Print.
"Eugenics". Unified Medical Language System (Psychological Index Terms). National Library of Medicine. 26 September 2010.
Genetics Home Reference. Tay-Sachs Disease. National Library of Medicine. 2012. Retrieved at http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/tay-sachs-disease.
Green Jersey. Can Men and Women with Down’s Syndrome Get Married and Have Children? 2013. Retrieved at http://www.downs-syndrome.org.uk/component/content/article/35-general/162-6-can-men-a-women-with-downs-syndrome-get-married-and-have-children.html

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