The coercive implementation of sterilization and euthanasia was not limited to Nazi Germany. Instead it was indicative of a global eugenics movement, occurring in the United States and much of the Western world, during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Essentially eugenics was the,“practical application of genetic science toward the improvement of the genetic health of future generations.” In response to the theorized fear of racial deterioration, eugenists advocated for the cultivation of superior genotypes and the eradication of those that were deemed to be genetically inferior. This pseudoscientific method of identifying hereditary disorders implied that the physically and mentally ill were, thereby, unworthy of life. While the