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Pros And Cons Of Eugenics

628 Words3 Pages

Hayden Branham
Mrs.Stitle
Accelerated English 10
3/22/23
Regression from Eugenics

“Eugenics asserts that all men must be so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs; and also so clever that they can manage each other's.” - G.K. Chesterton. Eugenics is the study of how to arrange human reproduction within a population to increase the chances of heritable characteristics considered desirable. Eugenics was largely developed by Sir Francis Galton, an English polymath. Studying Eugenics leads to a loss of diversity, and is largely promoted by those who support mass genocide.
Eugenics strives to give all humans the same, most desirable traits. This thought leads to a loss of diversity, as everybody would be the same. Humanity would turn …show more content…

A major supporter of eugenics was the Nazi party in WWII. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum posted an article “Eugenics” that talks about the history, and its relation to the Nazi’s. The Nazi party was largely influenced by the ideas of eugenics that were embedded into the minds of many young Germans, such as Adolf Hitler.“Medical Professionals implemented many of these policies and targeted individuals the Nazis defined as “hereditarily ill”: those with mental, physical, or social disabilities. Nazis claimed these individuals placed both a genetic and a financial burden upon society and the state.” Not only is eugenics morally wrong, it also is supported by those who look to commit mass genocide to reach their personal goals. Eugenics would inevitably lead to a …show more content…

Many would argue that eugenics would benefit society by having the best traits in a human being, arguing that humanity should focus on ‘progression’. In an article posted by Stanford, “Eugenics”, states “Eugenicists had two-fold aims: to encourage people with various desirable traits, e.g., health, intelligence, character, to reproduce together to create good births (what is known as “positive” eugenics), and to end certain diseases and disabilities by discouraging or preventing those with characteristics considered”. Although eugenics has positive benefits, eugenics also leads to a loss of diversity. Loss of diversity would lead to regression with the loss of creative minds to lead humanity. As well as being largely supported by those who support mass genocide, it would cause a world ran by dictators and sociopaths. Eugenics is a marvelous thing, with many good and bad sides to it, but in the end the bad heavily outweighs the

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After the fall of the Nazis in the 1940s, eugenics continued to impact the lives of those in the United States negatively up until the 1970s. It was not due to the need to be “superior”, but to be able to control reproduction by increasing the top members and decreasing the lower members. The movement took place mainly in the East Coast during the Progressive Era, reaching its climax in the 1920s and 1930s with immigration control, marriage laws, and sterilization of those who were considered dangerous to the society. Due to the Nazis, their rise to power, and the horrifying Holocaust, it had formed the movements in the United States.

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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.

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Eugenics is not a thought of morale and is not designed to save the entire human race, just the upper socioeconomic class. In North Carolina, feeble minded individuals were used as subjects for all kinds of genocidal experiments. Feeble minded simply means someone who suffers from an illness or mental deficiency and are often easier persuaded because they think they are getting help when they were really being coerced into becoming a test

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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

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Eugenics was prominent during the twenties and aimed to improve the human population by reducing the likeliness of defective genetic traits. Eugenics was practiced mainly in institutions for patients who possessed traits that could be passed through reproduction. During the time of eugenics, a young woman named Carrie Buck was sterilized in order to prevent passing on the traits that she and her mother possessed. Carrie and her mother were both institutionalized and considered “feeble minded”, therefore they were seen as unable to contribute to the procreation of the human race. These ideas of perfecting the human race resembled that of Hitler’s, as described in the Mein Kampf.

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Eugenics will cause the clash of classes through dominant physical traits along with the increase of racism. The only eugenics that should be further studied into is the prevention of disease because it does not dehumanize the fetus, but rather helps the longevity of one’s life. It should not surpass the goodness of

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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.

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“They (eugenicists) believe that human beings are inherently no different than animals, and therefore we can and should be bred like animals.” Eugenicists think that since we humans and animals are both mammals, that we can both endure the same dangerous tests. The results will be different for different animals and humans. It is true that the human race is animals, but in no way should we be treated as animals. Eugenicists use the same tests that are used on cows for testing as they do for humans.

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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.

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It is impressive that this idea originated from a period of time where there was little knowledge about genes. In conclusion, the idea of eugenics develops during the progressive era and it affect many people during this period of time. This idea of eugenics was where more progress occurs in science. Well not all about the idea of eugenics is bad is has some good points like it can reduce number of babies born with some mental illness or some with really bad illness.

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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.

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1417 Words | 6 Pages

Eugenics being, “…the belief that human evolution can be crafted by the encouraged breeding of people who are considered the most desirable—the “fit”—and the discouraged breeding of those who are considered the least desirable—the “unfit” (Withers, 2012, p.13). Reading Wither’s article about eugenics reinforced my beliefs about the horrible way society has and continues to act towards people suffering from mental distress. Society would genuinely rather see people sterilized or dead before offering them actual help or support. The idea that ‘mentally ill’ people are less desirable and ‘unfit’ is still valid today. I can think of two instances immediately when someone has offered me their unsolicited opinions--- opinions that very clearly supported the eugenics

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1134 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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722 Words | 3 Pages

There are a few appealing aspects to the act of eugenics. If eugenics were applied, the world could potentially see a decrease in disease, a rise in intelligence, and heightened physical aesthetic in humans. But, ethically it crosses many boundaries that have prevented this idea from going into world-wide effect in the past. A benefit to eugenics is it could lead to the reduction of genetic diseases in the gene pool.

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1229 Words | 5 Pages

Eugenics could make the human race more tough in terms of surviving epidemics or apocalyptic conditions which could wipe us off the face of the Earth as it is an attempt to improve the human gene pool .It could get rid of genetic diseases(from common ones like type 1 diabetes to severe ones like cystic fibrosis) which cause grief to family members, reduce quality of life and costs a lot of maintain life or treat, furthermore it could greatly increase our lifespan which is all good individually but it may have consequences as a species since competition for already scarce resources may increase if the birth rate is not controlled (is that ethical as well?), overpopulation could cause a greater anthropogenic pollution of the Earth leading to our doom which started off as a way to improve our lifestyle could lead to more industry to support the higher population leading to larger ozone holes more melting of polar icecaps and higher rising of sea levels and more cases of skin cancer. We would be playing god, altering a sort of natural cycle which regulates the population or cause a frenzy where everyone wants perfection where there could be discrimination where people can’t afford or are in no situation to receive the advantages of eugenics. In this case we should make eugenics widely and cheaply available but a question arises whether that is practically possible. Therefore eugenics also touches on other controversial topics like IVF, PID an

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