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Why Did Galton Agree With The Study Of Eugenics?

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The history of Eugenics
Sir Francis Galton

Sir Francis Galton first used the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883. He defines eugenics as the “study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally.” Galton was born in 1822. He was pressured to follow in the footsteps of Erasmus Darwin, his great-uncle. No one knows why Galton decided to study eugenics as had little experience in biology.

Galton believed that mental, moral and physical traits were hereditary. He also believed that people could be manipulated so that the next generation would be better in quality. Finding a solution to this problem was absolutely essential to Dalton. He stated that “all creatures would agree that it was better to be healthy than sick, vigorous than weak, well-fitted than ill-fitted for their part in life; in short, that it was better to be good rather than bad specimens of their kind, whatever that kind might be.” (3) …show more content…

Galton came up with the law of “deviation from an average” to classify humans into groups. Galton established an Anthropometric Laboratory at the International Health Exhibition in 1884. Around nine thousand people volunteered to be measured for height, weight, etc. The data from Anthropometric Laboratory was converted into a statistical table. When represented graphically, the table was a curve. The further from the average somebody was, the more rare they were. The ‘defectives’ are on the far left of the chart and the most genetically gifted are on the far right. Galton hoped these results could be used to show whether a person was a good genetic specimen or not at an early age so that people with favourable genetics could

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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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Positive eugenics aimed to encourage selective breeding of the elite, often through financial incentive and imploring desirables with their ethical duty to reproduce. Galton both preferred and encouraged this form of eugenics, taking into consideration three things: physique, ability, and character. Each was very important to an elite person, and inferiority in one aspect outweighed superiority in the other two. He did note that negative eugenics were also vital, however, setting out to “curtail the fertility of the undesirables.” These people generally consisted of the lower class, as well as mentally disabled people, criminals, and alcoholics.

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Accessed 20 Sept. 2017 Galton, Francis. “Eugenics; Its Definition, Scope and Aims.” The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 10, no. 1, July 1904, doi:10.1038/070082a0. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017. “Giggleswick.”

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