Why Is Eugenics Wrong

Although the idea of eugenics had a fairly innocent beginning idea to it, as time went by the idea was slowly planted into corrupted minds. The term “eugenics”, meaning “well-born”, was coined by a man named Sir Francis Galton. This idea came around in 1883, when Galton attained the idea based off of upper-class Britain, and how to improve humans towards that goal. Later that century, the same idea took hold in the United States, which involved actual “efforts to stop” these “negative traits” passing from generation to generation (“Introduction to”). Mainly those in the lower class, immigrants, minorities, etc. were seen as having more of a part in the negative traits, and as such they were often the ones sought after. In fact, many Americans were sterilized without consent in efforts to stop their genes from passing on. These procedures often happened when other consented medical surgeries had to take place anyway. Along with physically and mentally disabled people being sterilized, “it was[n’t]... uncommon for African American women to be sterilized” (“Introduction to”). This idea of eugenics slowly mellowed out in the U.S. around the time of World War II.

credibility”, and in addition, lose the belief that eugenics should even be a “field of study” to