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Eugenics Movement Essay

1134 Words5 Pages

Intellectually disabled can be defined as a person having limited learning abilities. They often have a hard time learning at the expected level and functioning properly in their everyday life. Simple tasks will take the intellectually disabled a little longer to perform than others. People first language shows that people are not just their disability. They contribute to our way of life and enrich the communities. They are regular people, that can do anything that they set their mind to. The treatment of these individuals was horrible. They were looked down upon by their community. Doctors felt that they could fix these individuals, and cure them of their “disease”. Families even gave away family members if they were disabled. Society was …show more content…

The eugenics movement was an important and dark event in America’s history. The eugenics movement “...aimed to emphasize the value of superior blood and the menace to society of inferior blood” (MacLean et al.). Basically society wanted only the best to populate it. If someone was disabled, they were considered inferior. They weren’t welcome to society because they couldn’t meet the basic standards of civilization. People wanted the most intelligent people that could contribute to their way of life. Eugenics deemed the disabled unfit for society and unfit to reproduce. Traits from members of the upper class were favored during the eugenics movement. Children with disabilities were even discriminated. An author named Michael D’Antonio states, “People were told, we can be rid of all disease, we can lower the crime rate, we can increase the wealth of our nation, if we only keep certain people from having babies” (Leung) Government officials and citizens wanted to annihilate anyone that didn’t fit their standards. This included the intellectually disabled. They didn’t fit into society correctly like people wanted. Individuals wanted a perfect society with perfect people, and the disabled messed with their ideal way of life. In the end, the eugenics movement sought out to efface anyone in society that didn’t make a better human

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