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Eugenics and its impact
Eugenics and its impact
Eugenics and its impact
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The issue of involuntary sterilization, especially after World War II, violates many moral and ethical principles. Why do you think sterilizations in Alberta continued until 1972,
He was also the author of updated eugenic family studies, The Jukes in 1915, and The Nam Family: A Study in Cacogenics (1912). Estabrook’s research emphasized the role of genetic susceptibility over environment in the creation of degenerate populations. His studies framed the degenerate behavior of his subjects as justification for stringent reproductive controls including institutional segregation and sterilization. To understand the sociological dimensions of the study,
In 1933, the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring’ was passed, ordering forced sterilization of those who were considered to be Disabled. These people included those with deafness, blindness, physical deformities, epilepsy, schizophrenia, etcetera. (“Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases”). Hitler backdated his order to September 1st, 1939, the day World War II began, to make it appear as if this was a wartime measure. The individuals were taken to supposed “Eugenics Court” where doctors and lawyers loyal to Hitler reviewed the cases.
Keegan Goetz Ms. Emily EN 211 21, February 2018 Black Men and Public Space by: Brent Staples Race is and will always be something that brings out numerous views, emotions and thoughts. Unfortunately some of these thoughts and views aren’t always good and don’t represent equality. To this day and many years before this, human beings have always been judged and discriminated upon things such as skin color, Birthplace, and gender.
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.
By the late 1800s, Indiana authorities believed criminality, mental problems, and pauperism were hereditary. In a paper presented in 1879 to the Social Science Association of Indiana, Harriet Foster claimed that imbeciles and the feeble-minded often inherit their conditions. Foster stated that "intermarriage of consanguineous persons, and intemperance of one or both parents, " are the most common reasons people have mental problems. Various laws were established based on this belief. In 1907, Governor J. Frank Hanly approved first state eugenics law, making sterilization mandatory for certain individuals that were in state custody.
government never imposed eugenics measures at a level on par with the Nazis, but, believe it or not, forced sterilization laws were actually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court with Buck v Bell in 1927. By 1931, twenty-seven states had those laws on the books! In fact, these were hardly controversial policies as a survey in Fortune Magazine found that 66% of Americans agreed with compulsory sterilization in 1937. To sum up, about 6,000 people were forcibly sterilized before Buck v Bell. However, approximately another 30,000 people were sterilized or castrated after that case, meanwhile a large percentage of them were prostitutes who weren’t actually “mental defects.”
Eugenics was a racist pseudoscience the aimed at clearing out all human beings that we regarded as unfit leaving behind only a selected that were conformed to a Nordic stereotype. Sterilization and segregation policies and marriage restrictions were enacted enshrining elements of philosophy. California was among the top five states to adopt such laws by early 1910. This attributed to a substantial number of marriages being barred and thousands of Americans being sterilized. On average about half of coercive sterilizations were done in California before the eruption of World War II in the 1940s.
Humans have a need to categorize the world around them. We like things to be labeled and orderly. Dividing humans up into races probably started innocently enough. Basing the races on geographic location and observable, objective traits like skin colour and facial features isn’t inherently bad, but becomes problematic when one group decides they are superior and begins attributing negative characteristics to other races. The Europeans did exactly that when they needed reasons to justify their colonization and enslavement of other people.
QUESTION 1: Eugenics is a growing field of study that opens up the possibility of eliminating genetic diseases in the human population. Discuss the pros and cons of eugenics in determining characteristics of offspring and thereby changing future populations. One reason to support the use of genetic information in reproduction is the potential for children to be disease-free and develop without medical hindrances. The American medical community has worked tediously to eliminate diseases through vaccines and various medical interventions; naturally, most believe the practice of screening embryos for genetic diseases is an “ethical” one. The practice of Eugenics becomes muddier when we consider accessibility, diversity and intention.
Eugenics or “good breeding” is meant to improve the human race through the gene pool using various methods. Similar to designer babies, the process could be used for good, but like Colin Tudge points out, “…although guns and bombs can be used as agents of peace, [humans] should not be overly surprised when in practice they are used to make war” (Tudge 282). Eugenics can be performed simply by regulating who and who cannot mate. It can also be done by sterilization, a procedure that permanently blocks pregnancy in a woman, which was a reality for many. The most famous account was performed by Germany, specifically the Nazis, during WWII, when 400,000 women were sterilized (Tudge 284).
It made more than 60000 "flawed genes" of Americans did the sterilization operation. “Once men realized that they could improve future generations by manipulating heredity they would cease searching for environ-mental solutions to political problems-poor laws, factory laws, sanitation laws—and would begin constructing a society in which eugenic values were supreme.” (Ruth S. C., 1972) Although the later governor of these state apologized to these people who were forced to do the sterilization operation, it was unlikely to compensate for their
Though many countries practiced negative eugenics, the United States and Germany are the two most prominent examples of the dangers of genetic modification. Policy makers in the United States, much like in Germany, sought to eliminate undesirable people in the population through eugenics. Robert Allison, the chair of the history department at Suffolk University stated that laws created to eradicate the pestilence of poor genetics was a “sociopolitical effort to control minorities” (2000). The Modern American, a scholarly journal that dedicates itself to both diversity and the law, explains that the want to control the spread of undesirable traits became especially prevalent after the advent of prenatal testing that allowed genetic abnormalities to be spotted before they became a problem in society (McChesney, 2006). The practice of eugenics allowed abuse of various sterilization methods in both men and women that provided the United States a unique and legal opportunity to target those that did not fit the image of a typical
According to www.creation.com the father of Darwinism was someone who was known as enormously influential English philosopher and agnostic during the Victorian era known as Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). Eugenics Movement is away of improving the genetic quality of the human population which is based on theory and practice. It is a higher reproduction of people that have desired traits as well as reduced reproduction in people that have less. This makes it a social philosophy. The way that they are related is most of social Darwinism writings were based on race of people, plants and animals.
Entering the 20th century, Galton’s ideas began to gain an immense amount of popularity and favorability in the U.S. Americans began to advocate for the idea of eugenics by proposing laws that would push for the sterilization of prisoners, the mentally challenged and others with traits that society deemed unworthy to pass on. It was very unfortunate that most of these people had no say in the movement that was