When learning about some of the laws and policies enacted throughout history, it is important to understand the historical, social, and political context in which it was created. This does not mean that these contexts justify or alleviate blame from those who enacted these laws or policies, rather, examining the origin of these laws through an interdisciplinary approach can help to understand why these laws may have been created. Adam Cohen’s Imbeciles, discusses the United States eugenics movement and the sterilization of Carrie Buck. Using concepts from Kitty Calavita’s Invitation to Law and Society, Carrie Buck ’s sterilization will be analyzed from the lens of law and society scholarship.
Villarosa argued that the eugenics movement played a significant role in shaping family planning policies and practices in the United States. In the book, she noted that the eugenicists believed that certain groups of people like African Americans and other people who suffer through poverty, were biologically inferior and should be discouraged from reproducing. These ideas were embraced by policymakers, public health officials, and family planning workers. They often saw their work as a way to control the reproduction of marginalized communities. The author also stated that the eugenics movement was intertwined with racism and classism.
That did not mean eliminate the possibilities of poorer areas reproducing. It did not involve permanent defects on test subjects simply because they are poor. Eugenics in the penal system took the negative approach and called it a “movement” using the poor and imprisoned as subject studies of that movement. The eugenics movements in the United States, Germany, and Scandinavia favored the negative approach. The courts would offer shorter sentences to people who would agree to be sterilized, knowing that they would take it because they could not afford bond and would want a shorter sentence.
Darwinists in turn, believed biology to be destiny and that if one's ancestors were unfit their children would be as well. Much like in evolution, Spencer assumed that the unfit populations would decline overtime due to their failure to compete, however paranoia led some Americans to speed up this process, introducing eugenics. Eugenics were supposed to improve men, ridding the undesirable traits of the unfit and changing genetic structure to create more fit individuals. The Eugenics movement in America took people of color, the mentally ill or disabled, LGBTQ individuals, and other members of society deemed unfit, and conducted experimentation ranging from forced breeding, involuntary sterilization, or institutionalization on them. Although the movement was eventually stomped out, it violated thousands of
In 1917, a law was passed creating the Oregon State Board of Eugenics. Eugenics is the concept of promoting people with sought after physical and mental traits to reproduce in order to enhance society. The board was allowed to sterilize inmates and patients in prisons and mental institutions, and if they could not reproduce, the thought was it would improve society. However, in 1983 the law was abolished. Sterilizing people does not stop the following generation from having physical or mental abnormalities nor does it prevent crime, using genetics to predict the mental state of future generations is not logical, and the sterilizations were unfair and inhumane.
In the article, The Case for Eugenics in a Nutshell, Marian Van Court claims that “human intelligence is largely hereditary”. This is a very unusual statement because intelligence depends on a large amount of factors, not on genetics. Human intelligence cannot be hereditary. For starters, when a child is being created, the genes of two people are mixed together, but there is assurance that the child will not be exactly like either parent (Ridley 12). This might explain that the intelligence of the parents won’t be passed down to the child when the offspring cannot even be so similar to parent.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, eugenics is: “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”. ("Definition of Eugenics by Merriam-Webster") The most common example of this concept would be the Holocaust, which was the extermination of Jewish people and others deemed “unfit” for society in World War Ⅱ. But little do many know, the Nazi’s were not the only people practicing eugenics in the early 1900’s, eugenics was being practiced in the United States long before the Holocaust. The American Eugenics Society aimed to educate American people on the science of Eugenics.
The development of new institutions allowed for more opportunities for research and programs of study, further diversifying the traditional “college” experience. With the expansion of state universities, students and faculty took a more central role within the university community. There were now more opportunities for women and African Americans to attend universities, lending them more freedom to learn. The Eugenics Movement fit in with the larger history of education during the early 1900s mainly because it contributed to racial and social biases.
Farzana Akhter Journal #3 Eugenics is the social movement that claimed to improve the genetic features of human populations through selective breeding and sterilization, based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish superiority and inferiority in society. This idea began with Social Darwinism. Early ideas on eugenics were accumulated in Ancient Greece and Rome. The republic of Roman, claimed that deformed children should be put to death. The modern eugenics movement developed in the late 19th and early 20th century.
On the other hand, according to the people and governments who support eugenics, it is considered as a tool to create a utopia. Eugenics should be approached both ethically in order to examine its moral complications and scientifically to see its biological effects to prove that it is indeed a strong component of dystopias. In an ethical perspective, eugenics can be examined in two different ways, method and aim. Methodically, eugenicists are separated in two, positive eugenicists and negative eugenicists.
A study was conducted to compare and contrast two recommendations provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) and American College of Medical Genetics(ACMG) about genetic testing of children. AAP advised that genetic testing should not be done to children during childhood for diseases that occur in adulthood. ACMG identified 56 genes that can have pathogenic mutations and advised that children be tested for possible diseases that may occur in adulthood. The two recommendations were based on three factors: Nature of the test, whose interest is to be taken into account, and weighing risks and benefits.
In recent years, testing of genetic material for disability or disease of an individual or their offspring has tremendously expanded knowledge for present and future disorders. The medical test of genetic screening is an examination of a population, identifying certain genotypes which display association with disease or susceptibility to disease, influence disease in descendants or fabricate other variations not known to be connected with disease (National Academy of Sciences, 1975). Some examples of the different types of genetic testing available include newborn screening, diagnostic testing, carrier testing, prenatal testing and forensic testing (Gehlert & Browne, 2006). Over the past couple of decades, there have been ongoing discussions on whether or not genetic screening should be encouraged, as testing presents limitations as well as benefits. Whilst the decision about whether to be screened should remain voluntary, as it is personal and complex, genetic screening should be ubiquitously endorsed and educated upon as it presents an improvement of the quality of life for those who are found to suffer a disease or disability and provides scientists and medical professionals with an
In general, DNA is the basic element of the human body. If you do a testing on DNA, you can easily know the situation of family (generation) history and predict the future of the Estonia family. An article, “What are the Pros and Cons of Genetic Screening?”, written by Claudia Smith, points out that the result of testing genes will decide whether their family should enlarge or not. The result is helpful because it can know if the families have defective genes or not, or if they should have a child. Testing genetics has been spread to many countries to know and decide their family future.
Eugenics is the science of using artificial selection to improve genetic features of the population. It is thought that improvement of the human race can be seen through sterilization of people who exhibit undesirable traits and selective breeding. Often called Social Darwinism, the concept was widely accepted during the time of World War I. It quickly became a taboo after World War II when Nazi Germany used it as an excuse for genocide. The thought of improving the human race by manipulating who is allowed to breed can either be appalling or compelling.
Advancements in science have allowed us to have greater information regarding the many diseases and disorders that have the potential to afflict us; such is the case with genetic testing. Genetic testing allows providers to screen individuals for changes in chromosomes, genes, or proteins and either confirm or rule out a suspected genetic condition (National Institute of Health [NIH], 2018). Although we now have the ability to test for thousands of genetic disorders, does not mean that we should test for these disorders. There are many instances, especially in regards to the unborn and adolescent children, where we must consider the legal, ethical, and social implications for doing so.
