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Eugenics today
FEATURE ARTICLE/ HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES Eugenics: Past, Present, and the Future main idea
Eugenics today
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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.
Margaret Sanger was a birth rights advocate and in her later years, supported eugenics. Eugenics is the belief that all of the good human qualities can be the main characteristics instead of all the bad qualities in the human population. In the speech, Sanger believes that people with mental illnesses should have limited children or no children at all which proves that she supported negative eugenics and sterilization.
I agree with your point that we shouldn 't have the authority to take away anyone 's right to bear children but sterilization is not inhumane if someone chooses to do it for their own personal reasons. I myself, after bearing 3 children, made the personal decision to not have anymore. There was nothing inhumane about my decision or the procedure. I do agree however that the inhumane practice of forced or "coercive" sterilization, favored by eugenicists and population controllers was wrong. Much of the controversy over Sanger and her involvement with eugenics came from a letter she wrote and an inartfully written sentence that describes the sort of allegations that fueled people 's suspicions that she was opening clinics to exterminate a
The documentary War on the Weak: Eugenics in America discussed the eugenics movement in the United States. The movement pushed positive and negative eugenics in our society. “Positive eugenics” encouraged healthy people to reproduce in order to create a healthier population. “Negative eugenics” encouraged or forced people labeled as unhealthy to become sterilized. Although this movement happened quite some time ago, the beliefs of the movement can still be found in our scientific community and our social lives.
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
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
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.
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.
Furthermore, men were the majority of sterilization victims and then intension shifted dramatically to women. The unfit mother and well-fit dependency affected many people. Plan Parenthood has led to the eugenics movement with eugenics mania occurring. The unfit motherhood was the real problem in the society. In the 1960’s, black power groups formed and race genocide occurred.
1920 U.S.A Eugenics Eugenics: (Noun/Verb): The act of attempting the perfection of genes within a pre-existing population similar to that of selective breeding within a select species of mammals. During the Roaring Twenties of the United States a process of artificial selection arose known as the process of Eugenics. Eugenics is as stated, a process of elimination of the “Lesser” individuals to preserve traits that are thought highly of. During the latter 19th Century and the early 20th Century, eugenics was considered a favored method of preserving society, therefore only showcasing the preferred traits within society.
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.
once eugenics became established in the United States, the campaign migrated to Germany. While Hitler 's anti-Semitism “sprung from his own mind”, the basis of the eugenics Hitler adopted, originated in America. He tried to legitimize his hatred by “wrapping it in the more palatable pseudoscientific facade of eugenics” (Black). By claiming that science was on his side, Hitler enlisted more followers among reasonable Germans. Eugenicists claimed that the ideal human was the blond, blue-eyed Nordic types.
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.
The twentieth century American eugenics movement was a social and scientific movement that sought to enhance the genetic quality of the human population through sterilization and selective breeding. Eugenics, the scientific practice and theory of planned breeding and racial purity, was widely popularized by an English polymath, Sir Francis Galton. Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, supported the idea of selected marriages and breeding, which then spread to countries across the globe. The social Darwinist philosophy of the early twentieth century and the newly developing science of genetics both had an impact on the eugenics movement as it rose in popularity in the United States. The movement was backed by many well known scientists, politicians,
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).
