Eugenics1883 - 1940

ORIGINS

The word “eugenics” was coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton

eu meaning good, and genes meaning born

Definition

“The science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the

utmost advantage.”

- Galton, Eugenics: It’s Definition, Scope and Aims

Ancient History

Plato (ca. 427 – 347 B.C.) In The Republic, discusses the need to

supply society with genetically improved human beings and how this could be done.

Rome and Sparta Infanticide to weed out “weak” babies

Two Types of Eugenics

Positive Eugenics - Measures to increase reproduction in families with desirable traits (i.e. encouraging the “fit” to have more children)

Negative Eugenics - Measures to limit reproduction in families with undesirable traits (e.g. sterilization via vasectomy and tubal ligation) Negative eugenics was the predominant view

Eugenics was influenced by

Origin of Species: Natural Selection “Survival of the fittest” Mendel’s studies on the inheritance of traits

(early research on inherited characteristics in plants)

Agriculture/Animal Breeding

Mendel’s Influence

Mendel’s experiments applied to animals and humans

“Applied genetics”

Father of Eugenics Charles Davenport, Founder

of the Eugenics Record Office, credited with the popularization of eugenics

Relied heavily on Mendel’s work

Respectable studies on eye color, hair color, hair texture, and pigmentation

BUT, goes on to apply results to complex human traits, like intelligence

Scientific Research Eugenicists contributed greatly to what we know

about many inherited disorders including:

• Hemophilia (blood does not clot)• Ataxia (lack of co-ordination)• Albinism (lack of skin pigmentation)• Polydatyly (extra fingers)

The problem was the general belief that all traits, including behavioral ones, followed Mendel’s inheritance ratios

Unscientific Research

Undesirables: Pauperism Alcoholism Feeblemindedness Promiscuity Criminality

Desirables: Emotional stability Strong character Considerateness for other

people Intelligence Tendency to uphold or

improve moral standards The quality which makes

people feel a personal responsibility for the public welfare

Eugenics claimed through science they were able to identify……

20th Century Eugenics

1900 – 1920s, several organizations were formed

The Eugenics Record Office (ERO - Harry Laughlin)

The American Breeders Association (ABA)The Race Betterment FoundationThe American Eugenics SocietyThe Galton Society

International Eugenics Congresses of 1912, 1921 and 1932Attended by the likes of Alexander Graham Bell and

Winston Churchill

Harry Hamilton Laughlin

Led the Eugenics Record Office from 1910 -1939

Designed compulsory sterilisation legislation in the US

"among the most racist and anti-Semitic of early twentieth-century eugenicists."

Teaching Eugenics

Courses offered eugenics in some of America’s top universities – Harvard, Columbia, Cornell – by 1914

Eugenics was a topic in 376 college courses High school textbooks preached the

“unfit” vs. “fit” Fitter Families Contests in 1920s

US Laws supporting Eugenics

The Laws Miscegenation laws against mixing races

-Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, followed by Alabama and Georgia

Immigration Laws- Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 - Limits on Eastern and Southern Europeans (based on IQ

tests, inmate/asylum studies Sterilization Laws

- Indiana was first in 1907- Model Eugenical Sterilization Law (Laughlin, 1922) defines socially inadequate classes

US Supreme Court Case

The case of Buck vs. Bell 1924 Virginia had compulsory sterilisation of

the mentally retarded The superintendent (James Bell) of the

Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded ordered Carrie Buck (aged 18 – mental age 9) to be sterilised because she was deemed to be a threat to society. Her mother (aged 52 mental age 8) was considered to be a prostitute and immoral.

The problem was taken to the Supreme Court because it infringed amendments 4 and 5 of the Constitution.

However, the Supreme Court upheld the sterilisation order by comparing it to being vaccinated. The law stayed on Virginia’s books until 1974.

It legitimised eugenic sterilisation in the USA Nazi doctors cited this case in their defense

Supreme Court Ruling:

Buck V Bell

“It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit

from continuing their kind…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.”

– Justice Oliver Holmes

About 60 000 Americans believed to have been sterilized based on eugenic principles

Eugenics Legislative Map

Eugenics Worldwide

Movements were founded in France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

Eugenic sterilization laws passed in Alberta (1928), Sweden and Norway (1934)

Nazi Germany

Government adopted Laughlin’s Model Eugenical Sterilization Law, and by 1933, sterilize more than 350,000 people

Laughlin awarded honorary degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1936 for work in “the science of racial cleansing”

Nazi Germany

Hitler’s “Aryan” society Marriage Laws of 1935 prohibiting unions

between “Aryans” and Jews and the eugenically unfit

~400,000 sterilized by 1939 The Final Solution-Wannsee

-killing of 6 million Jews- 70,000 mental patients- Gypsies, Slavs, and Social Democrats

Flaws of Eugenics

Failure to recognize the complexity of human traits

Disregard of environmental/social factors Skewed results Linking undesirable traits with racial and

ethnic groups Disregard of effects on genetic diversity Flawed IQ testing Deemed a pseudo-science: mainly a social

movement

The Fall of Eugenics

Mainly due to atrocities committed by Nazis

Emerging evidence against Eugenic claims Reginald Punnet Hardy-Weinberg

Opposition from the Church