Was Eugenics Ever Moral?

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Eugenics is the study or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species. Sounds good, right? But the question here is, is it moral to sacrifice someones life or the ability for someone to create life in the name of science? Surely Francis Galton and Gregor Mendel thought so.

In the nineteenth century, biology was at its peak. Charles Darwin, who just happens to be Galton’s cousin, had just introduced his idea of survival of the fittest. Galton then took that thesis and dissected it. The result of that mess was what we know today as eugenics. The initial proposal was for genetically perfect people to reproduce with others of the same kind. It was believed that mixing the inferior people and the so called perfect beings would “yield a corruption of blood”(Lombardo,8).

It was not until the Civil War ended when America started exploring this new world of genetics. People came up with the belief that “genetics appeared to be the cause behind human social problems - such as pauperism, nomadism, criminality,alcoholism, feeble-mindedness, rebelliousness and prostitution - as the inheritance of defective germ plasm” (Allen,4). As bizarre as this sounds, eugenicists and their wealthy followers swore by this. With this idea in mind, doctors in prison and mental institutions started sterilizing the inmates and patients. Their reasoning for doing this was that it was better to sterilize these genetically impaired people and let them go knowing there won’t be any other generations of that same problem than to keep them locked up under taxpayers dollar.

How could this have been moral? Even Galton, the man who officially named this branch of science called this negative eugenics. These men and women were sterilized...

... middle of paper ...

...t still isn’t, and it never will be.

Works Cited

Allen, Garland E. "Social Origins of Eugenics." Essay 1:Social Origins. N.p., n.d. Web. 23

Apr. 2014.

"Buck v. Bell." LII / Legal Information Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.

"Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings." United

States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10

June 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

"EugenicsArchive.Org: Image Archive on American Eugenics Movement."

EugenicsArchive.Org: Image Archive on American Eugenics Movement. N.p., n.d.

Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

"First Amendment." LII / Legal Information Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Lombardo, Paul. Three Generations, No Imbeciles. Baltimore: JHU, 2008. Print.

Meikos, David. "Eugenics Research Methods." Essay 3: Research Methods. N.p., n.d. Web.

22 Apr. 2014.

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