"Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution": Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields.

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through social intervention. The goals have variously been to create more intelligent people, save society resources, lessen human suffering and reduce health problems. Proposed means of achieving these goals most commonly include birth control, selective breeding, and genetic engineering. Critics argue eugenics has been applied as a pseudoscience, that it has a potential for "objectifying" human characteristics, and that historically it has been a means whereby social thinking culminated in coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, even genocide. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... [[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]] {{{diversity}}} Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Trinomial name {{{trinomial}}} Type Species {{{type_species}}} Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu (extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens [[Image:{{{range_map}}}|{{{range_map_width}}}|]] Synonyms {{{synonyms}}} Homo (genus). ... For the scientific journal Heredity see Heredity (journal) Heredity (the adjective is hereditary) is the transfer of characters from parent to offspring, either through their genes or through the social institution called inheritance (for example, a title of nobility is passed from individual to individual according to relevant customs and... Intelligence is usually said to involve mental capabilities such as the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Economics (from the Greek οίκος [oikos], house, and νομος [nomos], rule, hence household management) is a social science that studies the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. ... Suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. ... A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. ... Birth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of a woman becoming pregnant. ... Selective breeding in domesticated animals is the process of developing a cultivated breed over time. ... An iconic image of genetic engineering; this 1986 autoluminograph of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene of the firefly strikingly demonstrates the power and potential of genetic manipulation. ... Phrenology is seen today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ... genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing...

Selective breeding of human beings was suggested at least as far back as Plato, but the modern field was first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1865, drawing on the recent work of his cousin, Charles Darwin. From its inception, eugenics (derived from the Greek "well born" or "good breeding") was supported by prominent thinkers (including Alexander Graham Bell and W.E.B. DuBois) and was an academic discipline at many colleges and universities. Its scientific reputation tumbled in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin began incorporating eugenic rhetoric into the racial policies of Nazi Germany. During the postwar period both the public and the scientific community largely associated eugenics with Nazi abuses, which included enforced racial hygiene and extermination, although a variety of regional and national governments maintained eugenic programs until the 1970s. Plato Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. (February 16, 1822 – January 17, 1911) was a Victorian polymath, British anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician. ... 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ... Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-American-Canadian scientist and inventor. ... W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt DuBois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, writer, editor, poet, freemason, and scholar. ... // Events and trends A public speech by Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fascist movement The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The racial policy of Nazi Germany was the set of rascist policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany primarily against Jews. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nazism. ... Racial hygiene (often labeled a form of scientific racism) is the selection, by a government, of the most physical, intellectual and moral persons to raise the next generation (selective breeding) and a close alignment of public health with eugenics. ... Extermination is the act of killing with the intention of eradicating demographics within a population. ...

What is eugenics?

Definitions of the term vary. The term eugenics is often used to refer to a movement and social policy that was influential during the first half of the 20th century. In an historical and broader sense, eugenics can also be a study of "improving human genetic qualities". It is sometimes more broadly applied to describe any human action whose goal is to improve the gene pool. Some forms of infanticide in ancient societies, present-day reprogenetics, pre-emptive abortions and designer babies have been (sometimes controversially) referred to as eugenics. The gene pool of a species or a population is the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of that species or population. ... In sociology and biology, infanticide is the practice of intentionally causing the death of an infant of a given species, by members of the same species. ... Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like preimplantation genetic diagnosis become more available and more powerful. ... The term designer babies has been used in popular scientific and bioethics literature to specify children whose hereditary makeup (genes and genome) can be, using various reproductive and genetic technologies, purposefully selected (designed) by their parents. ...

Because of its normative goals and historical association with scientific racism, as well as the development of the science of genetics, the international scientific community has mostly disassociated itself from the term "eugenics", sometimes referring to it as a pseudo-science, although one can find advocates of what is now known as liberal eugenics. Modern inquiries into the potential use of genetic engineering have led to an increased invocation of the history of eugenics in discussions of bioethics, most often as a cautionary tale. Some ethicists suggest that even non-coercive eugenics programs would be inherently unethical, though this view has been challenged by such thinkers as Nicholas Agar. In philosophy, normative is usually contrasted with descriptive or explanatory when describing types of theories, beliefs, or statements. ... Scientific racism is research that seems to promote racist ideology and forgoes the ideals of scientific objectivity. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... Liberal eugenics is the study and use of genetic engineering to improve human beings, specifically in regards to biological characteristics and capacities. ... Bioethics is the ethics of biological science and medicine. ...

Eugenicists advocate specific policies that (if successful) would lead to a perceived improvement of the human gene pool. Since defining what improvements are desired or beneficial is arguably a cultural choice rather than a matter that can be determined objectively (e.g. by empirical, scientific inquiry), eugenics has been deemed pseudo-science by many. The most disputed aspect of eugenics has been the definition of "improvement" of the human gene pool, such as what is a beneficial characteristic and what is a defect. This aspect of eugenics has historically been tainted with scientific racism. The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... A pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. ... Scientific racism is research that seems to promote racist ideology and forgoes the ideals of scientific objectivity. ...

Early eugenicists were mostly concerned with perceived intelligence factors that often correlated strongly with social class. Many eugenicists took inspiration from the selective breeding of animals (where purebreeds are often strived for) as their analogy for improving human society. The mixing of races (or miscegenation) was usually considered as something to be avoided in the name of racial purity. At the time, this concept appeared to have some scientific support, and it remained a contentious issue until the advanced development of genetics led to a scientific consensus that the division of the human species into unequal races is unjustifiable. Intelligence is usually said to involve mental capabilities such as the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... Selective breeding in domesticated animals is the process of developing a cultivated breed over time. ... Purebreds, also called purebreeds or pedigreed, are cultivated varieties or cultivars of a species, achieved through the process of selective breeding. ... Miscegenation is the process or result of producing human offspring between and among members of, most commonly, different races or ethnicities and, less frequently, of different religions. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ...

Eugenics has also been concerned with the elimination of hereditary diseases such as haemophilia and Huntington's disease. However, there are several problems with labeling certain factors as "genetic defects": A genetic disorder, or genetic disease is a disease caused, at least in part, by the genes of the person with the disease. ... Haemophilia or hemophilia is the name of any of several hereditary genetic illnesses that impair the bodys ability to control bleeding. ...

• In many cases, there is no scientific consensus on what is a "defect" and what is not. It is often argued that this is a more matter of social or individual choice.
• What appears to be a defect in one context may not be so in another. This is can be the case for genes with a heterozygote advantage, such as sickle cell anemia or Tay-Sachs disease, who in their heterozygote form may offer an advantage against, respectively, malaria and tuberculosis.
• Many people can succeed in life with disabilities.
• Many of the conditions early eugenicists identified as hereditable (pellagra is one such example) are currently considered to be wholly or at least partially attributed to environmental conditions.

Similar concerns have been raised when prenatal diagnosis of congenital disorder leads to abortion (see also preimplantation genetic diagnosis). A heterozygote advantage (heterozygous advantage or overdominance) describes the case in which the heterozygote genotype has a higher relative fitness than either the homozygote dominant or homozygote recessive genotype. ... Sickle-shaped red blood cells Sickle cell anemia (American English), sickle cell anaemia (British English) or sickle cell disease is a genetic disease in which red blood cells may change shape under certain circumstances. ... Tay-Sachs disease (abbreviated TSD, also known as GM2 gangliosidosis) is a fatal genetic disorder, inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance called ganglioside GM2 accumulate in the nerve cells in the brain. ... Heterozygote cells are diploid or polyploid and have different alleles at a locus (position) on homologous chromosomes. ... Red blood cell infected with Malaria (Italian: bad air; formerly called ague or marsh fever in English) is an infectious disease which in humans causes about 350-500 million infections and approximately 30. ... Tuberculosis (commonly shortened to TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (Miliary tuberculosis), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... These are Lists of people with disabilities. ... Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease caused by dietary lack of niacin and protein, especially the essential amino acid tryptophan. ... Prenatal diagnosis is the diagnosis of disease or condition in a fetus or embryo before it is born. ... A congenital disorder is a medical condition that is present at birth. ... In medicine and (clinical) genetics preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a method to test embryos for genetic disorders before they are reimplanted in the uterus. ...

Eugenic policies have been historically divided into two categories: positive eugenics, which encourage a designated "most fit" to reproduce more often, and negative eugenics, which discourage or prevent a designated "less fit" from reproducing. Negative eugenics need not always be coercive. A state might offer financial rewards to certain people who submit to sterilization, although some critics might reply that this incentive along with social pressure could be perceived as coercion. Positive eugenics can also be coercive. Abortion by "fit" women was illegal in Nazi Germany. The word fit has several meanings, including the following. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

During the twentieth century, many countries enacted various eugenics policies and programs, including:

• Promoting differential birth rates
• Compulsory sterilization
• Marriage restrictions
• Genetic screening
• Birth control
• Immigration control
• Segregation (both racial segregation as well as segregation of the mentally ill from the "normal")
• Extermination

Most of these policies were later regarded as coercive, restrictive, or genocidal, and now few jurisdictions implement policies that are explicitly labeled as eugenic, or unequivically eugenenic in substance (however labled). However, some private organizations assist people in genetic counseling, and reprogenetics may be considered as a form of non state-enforced, "liberal" eugenics. Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... Birth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of a woman becoming pregnant. ... Segregation means separation. ... It has been suggested that Apartheid outside South Africa be merged into this article or section. ... Extermination is the act of killing with the intention of eradicating demographics within a population. ... Genetic counseling generally refers to prenatal counseling done when a genetic condition is suspected in a pregnancy. ... Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like preimplantation genetic diagnosis become more available and more powerful. ...

History

Galton's theory

Selective breeding was suggested at least as far back as Plato, who believed human reproduction should be controlled by government. He recorded these views in his famous dialogue "The Republic." "The best men must have intercourse with the best women as frequently as possible, and the opposite is true of the very inferior." Plato proposed that selection be performed by a fake lottery so people's feelings wouldn't be hurt by any awareness of selection principles. Other ancient examples include the city of Sparta's mythical practice of leaving weak babies outside of city borders to die. See Infanticide. Plato Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Sparta (Greek: Σπάρτη) was a city in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ... In sociology and biology, infanticide is the practice of intentionally causing the death of an infant of a given species, by members of the same species. ...

Sir Francis Galton initially developed the ideas of eugenics.

During the 1860s and 1870s Sir Francis Galton systematized these ideas and practices according to new knowledge about the evolution of man and animals provided by the theory of his cousin Charles Darwin. After reading Darwin's Origin of Species, Galton noticed an interpretation of Darwin's work whereby the mechanisms of natural selection were potentially thwarted by human civilization. He reasoned that, since many human societies sought to protect the underprivileged and weak, those societies were at odds with the natural selection responsible for extinction of the weakest. Only by changing these social policies, Galton thought, could society be saved from a "reversion towards mediocrity", a phrase that he first coined in statistics, and which later changed to the now common, "regression towards the mean." Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Francis Galton Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. (February 16, 1822 – January 17, 1911) was a Victorian polymath, British anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician. ... In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ... The 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species First published in 1859, The Origin of Species (full title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the pivotal... Natural selection is the name Charles Darwin gave to the principal process through which new species emerge, or evolve. ... The word civilization (or civilisation) has a variety of meanings related to human society. ...

Galton first sketched out his theory in the 1865 article "Hereditary Talent and Character," then elaborated it further in his 1869 book Hereditary Genius. He began by studying the way in which human intellectual, moral, and personality traits tended to run in families. Galton's basic argument was that "genius" and "talent" were hereditary traits in humans (although neither he nor Darwin yet had a working model of this type of heredity). He concluded that, since one could use artificial selection to exaggerate traits in animals, one could expect similar results when applying such models to humans. As he wrote in the introduction to Hereditary Genius: 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... 1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This Chihuahua mix and Great Dane show the wide range of dog breed sizes created using artificial selection. ...

I propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. Consequently, as it is easy, notwithstanding those limitations, to obtain by careful selection a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations.

According to Galton, society already encouraged dysgenic conditions, claiming that the less intelligent were out-reproducing the more intelligent. Galton did not propose any selection methods: rather, he hoped that a solution would be found if social mores changed in a way that encouraged people to see the importance of breeding. Dysgenics is the evolutionary weakening an of organism relative to its surroundings, often due to relaxation of selectionary pressures. ...

Galton first used the word eugenic in his 1883 Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development, a book in which he meant "to touch on various topics more or less connected with that of the cultivation of race, or, as we might call it, with 'eugenic' questions." He included a footnote to the word "eugenic" which read:

That is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, eugeneia, etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognisance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalised one than viriculture which I once ventured to use.

In 1904 he clarified his definition of eugenics as:

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. [1]

Galton's formulation of eugenics was based on a strong statistical approach, influenced heavily by Adolphe Quetelet's "social physics." Unlike Quetelet however, Galton did not exhalt the "average man," but decried him as mediocre. Galton and his statistical heir Karl Pearson developed what was called the biometrical approach to eugenics, which developed new and complex statistical models (later exported to wholly different fields) to describe the heredity of traits. However, with the re-discovery of Gregor Mendel's hereditary laws, two separate camps of eugenics advocates emerged. One was made up of statisticians, the other of biologists. Statisticians thought the biologists had exceptionally crude mathematical models while biologists thought the statisticians knew little about biology. An example of statistics used in educational assessment. ... Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quételet (February 22, 1796 - 1874) was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. ... Karl Pearson (pencil sketch in notebook; there is some see-through of writing on next page) Karl Pearson (March 27, 1857 – April 27, 1936) was a major contributor to the early development of statistics as a serious scientific discipline in its own right. ... At Disney World, biometric measurements are taken from the fingers of multi-day pass users to ensure that the pass is used by the same person from day to day. ... Gregor Johann Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822 – January 6, 1884) was an Austrian monk who is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants. ...

Eugenics eventually referred to human selective reproduction with an intent to create children with desirable traits, generally through the approach of influencing differential birth rates. These policies were mostly divided into two categories: Positive eugenics, the increased reproduction of those seen to have advantageous hereditary traits and negative eugenics, the discouragment of reproduction by those with hereditary traits perceived as poor. Negative eugenic policies in the past have ranged from attempts at segregation to sterilization and even genocide. Positive eugenic policies have typically taken the form of awards or bonuses for "fit" parents who have another child. Relatively innocuous practices like marriage counseling had early links with eugenic ideology. Segregation means separation. ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing... Relationship counseling may be advertised under several headings: marriage, family, couples, ... . It is usually done by appointment with a face-to-face counsellor. ...

Eugenics differed from what would later be known as Social Darwinism. While both claimed intelligence was hereditary, eugenics asserted that new policies were needed to actively change the status quo towards a more "eugenic" state, while the Social Darwinists argued society itself would naturally "check" the problem of "dysgenics" if no welfare policies were in place (for example, the poor might reproduce more but would have higher mortality rates). Social Darwinism is a term used to describe a style or trend in social theory which holds that Darwins theory of evolution of biological traits in a population by natural selection can also be applied to human social institutions. ...

Eugenics and the state, 1890s-1945

One of the earliest modern advocates of eugenic ideas (before they were labeled as such) was Alexander Graham Bell, best known as one of the inventors of the telephone. In 1881 Bell investigated the rate of deafness on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. From this he concluded that deafness was hereditary in nature and recommended a marriage prohibition against the deaf ("Memoir upon the formation of a deaf variety of the human Race"). Like many other early eugenicists he proposed controlling immigration for the purpose of eugenics and warned that boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race. Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-American-Canadian scientist and inventor. ... The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly voice and speech) across distance. ... The word deaf, can have very different meanings based on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ... Map of Marthas Vineyard. ...

Though eugenics is today often associated with racism, it was not always so; both W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey supported eugenics or ideas resembling eugenics as a way to reduce African American suffering and improve the stature of African Americans. An African-American man drinks out of the colored only water fountain at a racially segregated streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939. ... W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt DuBois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, writer, editor, poet, freemason, and scholar. ... Marcus Garvey (far right) in parade Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940) was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, crusader for black nationalism, and founder of the UNIA-ACL. He was born in Jamaica. ... An African-American (also Afro-American, Black American, or black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...

"We do not stand alone": Nazi poster from 1936 with flags of other countries with compulsory sterilization legislation.

Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was infamous for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs which ran under the banner of "racial hygiene." Among other activities, the Nazis performed extensive experimentation on live human beings to test their genetic theories, ranging from simple measurement of physical characteristics to the more ghastly experiments carried out by Josef Mengele for Otmar von Verschuer on twins in the concentration camps. During the 1930s and 1940s the Nazi regime forcibly sterilized hundreds of thousands of people whom they viewed as mentally and physically "unfit" and killed tens of thousands of the institutionalized disabled through compulsory euthanasia programs. They also implemented a number of "positive" eugenics policies, giving awards to "Aryan" women who had large numbers of children and encouraged a service in which "racially pure" single women were impregnated by SS officers (Lebensborn). Many of their concerns for eugenics and racial hygiene were also explicitly present in their systematic killing of millions of "undesirable" Europeans including Jews, gypsies and homosexuals during the Holocaust (and much of the killing equipment and methods employed in the death camps were first developed in their euthanasia program). The scope and coercion involved in the German eugenics programs along with a strong use of the rhetoric of eugenics and so-called "racial science" throughout the regime created an indelible cultural association between eugenics and the Third Reich in the postwar years. Wir stehen nicht allein: We do not stand alone. Nazi propaganda poster from 1936. ... Wir stehen nicht allein: We do not stand alone. Nazi propaganda poster from 1936. ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... â–¶ (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 to his death by suicide. ... Racial hygiene (often labeled a form of scientific racism) is the selection, by a government, of the most physical, intellectual and moral persons to raise the next generation (selective breeding) and a close alignment of public health with eugenics. ... Josef Mengele Josef Mengele, M.D., Ph. ... // Events and trends A public speech by Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fascist movement The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... Euthanasia (from Greek: ευθανασία - ευ good, θανατος death) refers to assisted dying. ... The term Aryan race refers to a model of racial identity that was prevelant in Europe from around the 1880s through to 1945, most notably in Nazi Germany. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... Lebensborn was one of several programs initiated by Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler to secure the racial heredity of the Third Reich. ... The Roma people (pronounced rahma, singular Rom, sometimes Rroma, and Rrom) along with the closely related Sinti people are commonly known as Gypsies in English, and as Tsigany in most of Europe. ... Since its inception, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Child survivors of the Holocaust filmed during the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

The second largest eugenics movement was in the United States. Beginning with Connecticut in 1896 many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. In 1898 Charles B. Davenport, a prominent American biologist began as director of a biological research station based in Cold Spring Harbor where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the Carnegie Institution to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The Eugenics Record Office opened in 1910 while Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin began to promote eugenics. Official language(s) English Capital Hartford Largest city Bridgeport Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 48th 14,371 km² 113 km 177 km 12. ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Feeble-minded was a term used from the late 19th century through the early 20th century to loosely describe a variety of mental deficiencies, including what would now be considered mental retardation in its various types and grades, and learning disabilities such as dyslexia. ... Charles Benedict Davenport (June 1, 1866 — February 18, 1944) was a prominent American biologist and eugenicist. ... Main articles: Life The most salient example of biological universality is that all living things share a common carbon-based biochemistry and in particular pass on their characteristics via genetic material, which is based on nucleic acids such as DNA and which uses a common genetic code with only minor... Cold Spring Harbor can refer to: Cold Spring Harbor, New York Cold Spring Harbor, a Billy Joel album Cold Spring Harbor, a 1986 novel by Richard Yates This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) is a foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 to support scientific research. ... The Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York was a center for eugenics and human heredity research in the first half of the twentieth century. ... -1... Harry H. Laughlin Harry Hamilton Laughlin (March 11, 1880 – January 26, 1943) was a leading American eugenicist in the first half of the 20th century. ...

A pedigree chart from The Kallikak Family meant to show how one "illicit tryst" could lead to an entire generation of "imbeciles".

In years to come the ERO collected a mass of family pedigrees and concluded that those who were unfit came from economically and socially poor backgrounds. Eugenicists such as Davenport, the psychologist Henry H. Goddard and the conservationist Madison Grant (all well respected in their time) began to lobby for various solutions to the problem of the "unfit" (Davenport favored immigration restriction and sterilization as primary methods, Goddard favored segregation in his The Kallikak Family, Grant favored all of the above and more, even entertaining the idea of extermination). Though their methodology and research methods are now understood as highly flawed, at the time this was seen as legitimate scientific research. It did, however, have scientific detractors (notably Thomas Hunt Morgan). Download high resolution version (492x644, 26 KB)An image from Henry H. Goddards The Kallikak Family, 1912. ... Download high resolution version (492x644, 26 KB)An image from Henry H. Goddards The Kallikak Family, 1912. ... A pedigree is a list of ancestors (usually implying distinguished), a list of ancestors of the same breed (usually in the case of animals), the purity of a breed, individual, or strain, or a document proving any of these things. ... The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of mind and behavior. ... Henry Herbert Goddard (1866 – 1957) was a prominent American psychologist and eugenicist in the early 20th century. ... Madison Grant in the early 1920s. ... The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard. ... Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 — December 4, 1945) was an American geneticist. ...

In 1924, the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, with eugenicists for the first time playing a central role in the Congressional debate as expert advisers on the threat of "inferior stock" from Eastern and Southern Europe. [2] This reduced the number of immigrants from abroad to fifteen percent from previous years, to control the number of "unfit" individuals entering the country. The new Act strengthened existing laws prohibiting race mixing in an attempt to maintain the gene pool. Eugenic considerations also lay behind the adoption of incest laws in much of the USA and were used to justify many anti-miscegenation laws. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The United States Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act) limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of person from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890. ... Incest is sexual activity or marriage between very close family members. ... Miscegenation is the process or result of producing human offspring between and among members of, most commonly, different races or ethnicities and, less frequently, of different religions. ...

Some states sterilized "imbeciles" for much of the 20th century. The US Supreme Court ruled in the 1927 Buck v. Bell case that the state of Virginia could sterilize those they thought unfit. The most significant era of eugenic sterilization was between 1907 and 1963 when over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States. A favorable report on the results of the sterilizations in California, by far the most sterilizing state, was published in book form by the biologist Paul Popenoe and was widely cited by the Nazi government as evidence that wide-reaching sterilization programs were feasible and humane. When Nazi administrators went on trial for war crimes in Nuremberg after World War II they justified the mass-sterilizations (over 450,000 in less than a decade) by citing the United States as their inspiration. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States of America. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Carrie Buck was a patient sentenced to compulsory sterilization. ... State nickname: Old Dominion Official languages English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Governor Mark R. Warner (D) Tim Kaine (D-Governor Elect) Senators John Warner (R) George Allen (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 35th 110,862 km² 7. ... Compulsory sterilization programs sprouted up in many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, usually as part of a program of negative eugenics -- to prevent undesirable members of the population reproducing. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... Paul B. Popenoe in 1915. ... A war crime is a punishable offense, under international law, for violations of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... Hl. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest...

Almost all non-Catholic western nations adopted some eugenics legislation. In July 1933 Germany passed a law allowing for the involuntary sterilization of "hereditary and incurable drunkards, sexual criminals, lunatics, and those suffering from an incurable disease which would be passed on to their offspring..." [3] Sweden forcibly sterilized 62,000 "unfits" as part of a eugenics program over a forty year period. Similar incidents occurred in Canada, Australia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Switzerland and Iceland for people the government declared to be mentally deficient. Singapore practiced a limited form of "positive" eugenics which involved encouraging marriage between college graduates in the hope they would produce better children. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The term college (Latin collegium) is most often used today to denote an educational institution. ...

Various authors, notably Stephen Jay Gould, have repeatedly asserted that restrictions on immigration passed in the United States during the 1920s (and overhauled in 1965) were motivated by the goals of eugenics, in particular a desire to exclude "inferior" races from the national gene pool. During the early twentieth century the United States and Canada began to receive far higher numbers of southern and eastern European immigrants. Influential eugenicists like Lothrop Stoddard and Harry Laughlin (who was appointed as an expert witness for the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization in 1920) presented arguments that these were inferior races who would pollute the national gene pool if their numbers went unrestricted. It has been argued that this stirred both Canada and the United States into passing laws creating a hierarchy of nationalities, rating them from the most desirable Anglo-Saxon and Nordic peoples to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who were almost completely banned from entering the country. However several people, in particular Franz Samelson, Mark Snyderman and Richard Herrnstein, have argued that, based on their examination of the records of the Congressional debates over immigration policy, Congress gave virtually no consideration to these factors. According to these authors, the restrictions were motivated primarily by a desire to maintain the country's cultural integrity against a heavy influx of foreigners. This interpretation is not, however, accepted by most historians of eugenics. Stephen Jay Gould For the science fiction writer, see Steven Gould. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883–May 1, 1950; usually known only by his middle and last names) was an American political theorist, eugenicist, and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of prominent books of early 20th-century scientific racism. ... Harry Hamilton Laughlin (March 11, 1880- January 26, 1943) was a leading eugenicist in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... Nordic theory (or Nordicism) was a theory of race prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. ... Richard Herrnstein (1930-1994) was a prominent researcher in comparative psychology who did pioneering work on pigeon intelligence employing the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Culture The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

Some who disagree with the idea of eugenics in general contend that eugenics legislation still had benefits. Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood of America) found it a useful tool to urge the legalization of contraception. In its time, eugenics was seen by many as scientific and progressive, the natural application of knowledge about breeding to the arena of human life. Before the death camps of World War II, the idea that eugenics could lead to genocide was not taken seriously. Margaret Sanger. ... Planned Parenthood is an American organization devoted to individual determination with regards to matters of fertility. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as the largest and deadliest... genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing...

Stigmatization of eugenics in the post-Nazi years

After the experience of Nazi Germany many ideas about "racial hygiene" and "unfit" members of society were publicly renounced by politicians and members of the scientific community. The Nuremberg Trials against former Nazi leaders revealed to the world many of the regime's genocidal practices and resulted in formalized policies of medical ethics and the 1950 UNESCO statement on race. Many scientific societies released their own similar "race statements" over the years and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, developed in response to abuses during the second World War, was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and affirmed "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family." [4] In continuation the 1978 UNESCO declaration on race and racial prejudice states that the fundamental equality of all human beings are the ideal toward which ethics and science should converge. [5] Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The Nuremberg Trials is the name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1945. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (also UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, December 10, 1948), outlining a view on basic human rights. ... Main article: League of Nations The term United Nations was coined by Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, to refer to the Allies. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1945. ...

In reaction to Nazi abuses, eugenics became almost universally reviled in many of the nations where it had once been popular (however some eugenics programs, including sterilization, continued quietly for decades). Many pre-war eugenicists engaged in what they later labeled "crypto-eugenics," purposefully taking their eugenic beliefs "underground" and becoming respected anthropologists, biologists and geneticists in the post-war world (including Robert Yerkes in the USA and Otmar von Verschuer in Germany). Californian eugenicist Paul Popenoe founded marriage counseling during the 1950s, a career change which grew from his eugenic interests in promoting "healthy marriages" between "fit" couples. Robert Mearns Yerkes (May 26, 1876–February 3, 1956) worked in the field of comparative psychology. ... Paul B. Popenoe in 1915. ... Relationship counseling may be advertised under several headings: marriage, family, couples, ... . It is usually done by appointment with a face-to-face counsellor. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

High school and college textbooks from the 1920s through the 40s often had chapters touting the scientific progress to be had from applying eugenic principles to the population. Many early scientific journals devoted to heredity in general were run by eugenicists and featured eugenics articles alongside studies of heredity in non-human organisms. After eugenics fell out of scientific favor, most references to eugenics were removed from textbooks and subsequent editions of relevant journals. Even the names of some journals changed to reflect new attitudes. For example, "Eugenics Quarterly" became "Social Biology" in 1969 (the journal still existed in 2005 though it looked little like its predecessor). Notable members of the American Eugenics Society (1922-1994) during the second half of the 20th Century included Joseph Fletcher (originator of Situational ethics), Dr. Clarence Gamble of the Procter & Gamble fortune and Garrett Hardin, a population control advocate and author of The Tragedy of the Commons. The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a society established in 1922 to promote eugenics. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) founded the theory of situational ethics in the 1960s, and was a pioneer in the field of bioethics. ... Situational ethics (also known as Situationism) refers to a particular view of ethics,faggot that states: (J. Fletcher, Situation Ethics (Westminster, Philadelphia, 1966). ... Clarence J Gamble married to Sarah Merry Bradley-Gamble, was the heir of the Procter and Gamble soap company fortune. ... Procter & Gamble headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... Garrett Hardin Garrett James Hardin (April 21, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was a controversial ecologist from Dallas, Texas who was most known for his 1968 paper, The Tragedy of the commons. ... Population control is the practice of curtailing population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate. ... The tragedy of the commons is a phrase used to refer to a class of phenomena that involve a conflict for resources between individual interests and the common good. ...

Despite the changed post-war attitude towards eugenics in the US and some European countries, a few nations, notably Canada and Sweden, maintained large-scale eugenics programs, including forced sterilization of mentally handicapped individuals, as well as other practices, until the 1970s. In the United States, sterilizations capped off in the 1960s, though the eugenics movement had largely lost most popular and political support by the end of the 1930s. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Modern eugenics and genetic engineering

Beginning in the 1980s the history and concept of eugenics were widely discussed as knowledge about genetics advanced significantly. Endeavors such as the Human Genome Project made the effective modification of the human species seem possible again (as did Darwin's initial theory of evolution in the 1860s, along with the rediscovery of Mendel's laws in the early 20th century). The difference at the beginning of the 21st century was the guarded attitude towards eugenics, which had become a watchword to be feared rather than embraced. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... The Human Genome Project (HGP) endeavored to map the human genome down to the nucleotide (or base pair) level and to identify all the genes present in it. ... Mendelian inheritance (or Mendelian genetics or Mendelism) is a set of primary tenets that underlie much of genetics developed by Gregor Mendel in the latter part of the 19th century. ...

Only a few scientific researchers (such as the controversial psychologist Richard Lynn) have openly called for eugenic policies using modern technology but they represent a minority opinion in current scientific and cultural circles. One attempted implementation of a form of eugenics was a "genius sperm bank" (1980-1999) created by Robert Klark Graham, from which nearly 230 children were conceived (the best known donor was Nobel Prize winner William Shockley). In the USA and Europe though, these attempts have frequently been criticized as in the same spirit of classist and racist forms of eugenics of the 1930s. Results, in any case, have been spotty at best. Richard Lynn is a professor of psychology in Northern Ireland. ... Robert Klark Graham (1907-1997) American eugenicist and businessman who made millions by developing shatter-proof plastic eyeglass lenses, and who later founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank for geniuses in the hope of implementing a eugenics program. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... William Bradford Shockley (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) American physicist, eugenicist and co-inventor of the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. ...

Some conservative commentators have also proposed eugenics-like programs. Thomas Sowell advocated differential birth rates in his book Ethnic America: Thomas Sowell Thomas Sowell (born 30 June 1930) is a prominent American economist, political writer, and conservative-libertarian[1] commentator. ...

The internal distribution of children among blacks has made the upward movement of the race as a whole more difficult. The general tendency of poor people to have more children than middle-class people has been accentuated among American Negroes. Better educated and higher income blacks have even fewer children than their white counterparts, while low-income blacks have even more children than equally low income whites. Much of the struggle that has brought some blacks up from poverty has had to be repeated in successive generations because successful blacks did not have enough children to reproduce themselves. (Sowell, 1981, p. 213)

Because of its association with compulsory sterilization and the racial ideals of the Nazi Party, the word eugenics is rarely used by the advocates of such programs.

Only a few governments in the world had anything resembling eugenic programs today. In 1994 China passed the "Maternal and Infant Health Care Law" which included mandatory pre-marital screenings for "genetic diseases of a serious nature" and "relevant mental disease." Those who were diagnosed with such diseases were required either to not marry, agree to "long term contraceptive measures" or to submit to sterilization. This law was repealed in 2004. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

A similar screening policy (including pre-natal screening and abortion) intended to reduce the incidence of thalassemia exists on both sides of the island of Cyprus. Since the program's implementation in the 1970s, it has reduced the ratio of children born with the hereditary blood disease from 1 out of every 158 births to almost zero. Dor Yeshorim, a program which seeks to reduce the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease among certain Jewish communities, is another screening program which has drawn comparisons with eugenics. In Israel, at the expense of the state, the general public is advised to carry out genetic tests to diagnose the disease before the birth of a baby. If an unborn baby is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs the pregnancy is usually terminated. The ultra-Orthodox association Dor Yeshorim tests young couples to check whether they are genetically "suitable." If both the young man and young woman are Tay-Sachs carriers, the match is determined to be unsuitable and the couple is expected to split up. Thalassemia (American English) (or Thalassaemia in British English) is an inherited disease of the red blood cells, classified as a hemoglobinopathy. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Dor Yeshorim (Hebrew: generation [that is] straight/reliable) is an organization that operates in Orthodox Jewish communities. ... Tay-Sachs disease (abbreviated TSD, also known as GM2 gangliosidosis) is a fatal genetic disorder, inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance called ganglioside GM2 accumulate in the nerve cells in the brain. ... Orthodox Judaism is the stream of Judaism which adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmud (The Oral Law) and later codified in the Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law). It is governed by these works and the Rabbinical commentary... Dor Yeshorim (Hebrew: generation [that is] straight/reliable) is an organization that operates in Orthodox Jewish communities. ...

In modern bioethics literature, the history of eugenics presents many moral and ethical questions. Commentators have suggested the new "eugenics" will come from reproductive technologies that will allow parents to create so-called "designer babies" (what the biologist Lee M. Silver prominently called "reprogenetics"). It has been argued that this "non-coercive" form of biological "improvement" will be predominately motivated by individual competitiveness and the desire to create "the best opportunities" for children, rather than an urge to improve the species as a whole, which characterized the early twentieth century forms of eugenics. Because of this non-coercive nature, lack of involvement by the state and a difference in goals, some commentators have questioned whether such activities are eugenics or something else all together. The term designer babies has been used in popular scientific and bioethics literature to specify children whose hereditary makeup (genes and genome) can be, using various reproductive and genetic technologies, purposefully selected (designed) by their parents. ... (born 1952) is a professor at Princeton University (as of 07/2005) in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. ... Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like preimplantation genetic diagnosis become more available and more powerful. ...

Some disability activists argue that, although their impairments may cause them pain or discomfort, what really disables them as members of society is a socio-cultural system that does not recognise their right to genuinely equal treatment. They express skepticism that any form of eugenics could be to the benefit of the disabled considering their treatment by historical eugenic campaigns.

James D. Watson, the first director of the Human Genome Project, initiated the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program (ELSI) which has funded a number of studies into the implications of human genetic engineering (along with a prominent website on the history of eugenics), because: James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. ... The Human Genome Project (HGP) endeavored to map the human genome down to the nucleotide (or base pair) level and to identify all the genes present in it. ...

In putting ethics so soon into the genome agenda, I was responding to my own personal fear that all too soon critics of the Genome Project would point out that I was a representative of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory that once housed the controversial Eugenics Record Office. My not forming a genome ethics program quickly might be falsely used as evidence that I was a closet eugenicist, having as my real long-term purpose the unambiguous identification of genes that lead to social and occupational stratification as well as genes justifying racial discrimination. (Watson 2000, p.202) The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a research and educational institution, consisting of science laboratories located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York on Long Island, USA. The Laboratory has research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, and has a broad educational mission, including the recently established... The Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York was a center for eugenics and human heredity research in the first half of the twentieth century. ...

While any ideas described as "eugenic" are still highly controversial in both public and scholarly spheres, a few distinguished geneticists including Nobel Prize winners John Sulston ("I don't think one ought to bring a clearly disabled child into the world") [6] and Watson ("Once you have a way in which you can improve our children, no one can stop it.") have recently spoken in support of "voluntary" eugenics.^{[citation needed]} John E. Sulston received his degree as a chemist at Cambridge, UK, but devoted his scientific life to biological research, especially in the field of molecular biology. ...

Some modern subcultures advocate different forms of eugenics assisted by human cloning and human genetic engineering, sometimes even as part of a new cult (see Raëlism, Cosmotheism, Transtopianism or Prometheism). These groups also talk of "conscious evolution", "neo-eugenics" or "genetic freedom". As understood in sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a distinct set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ... Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing, or previously existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual. ... This is currently being reorganized. ... In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings (scriptures), its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. ... Raëls first published book, the basis of the Raëlian movement Raëlism is the belief system promoted by the Raëlian Movement, a quasi-religious organization which believes that scientifically advanced extraterrestrials known as the Elohim (taken from the Hebrew texts of the Christian Bible and the... Cosmotheism can refer to: Pantheism Collective consciousness Collective unconsciousness Noosphere Omega Point Personalities associated with Cosmotheism: The religious philosophy of Mordekhay Nesiyahu (Zionist, founded the term). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and conform with our NPOV policy, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Behavioral traits often identified as potential targets for modification through human genetic engineering include intelligence, depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, sexual behavior (and orientation) and criminality. This is currently being reorganized. ...

Most recently in the United Kingdom a court case, the Crown v. James Edward Whittaker-Williams, arguably set a precedent of banning sexual contact between people with learning disabilities. The accused, a man suffering learning disabilities was jailed for kissing and hugging a woman with learning disabilities. This was done under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act which redefines kissing and cuddling as sexual and states that those with learning difficulties are unable to give consent regardless of whether or not the act involved coercion. Opponents of the act have attacked it as bringing in eugenics through the backdoor under the guise of a requirement of "consent".

Criticism

Pseudoscience

While the science of genetics has increasingly provided means by which certain characteristics and conditions can be identified and understood, given the complexity of human genetics and culture, there is agreed objective means of determining which characteristics might be ultimately desireable or undesireable. If eugenicists claim that this can be determined by empirical investigation, they are vulnerable to the charge that their views amount to a pseudoscience, a term that refers to any field that isn't scientific but is sometimes erroneously regarded as such. Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... Phrenology is seen today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ...

Objectification of hereditary traits

Some critics have argued, often on ethical grounds, that eugenic attitudes and practices may objectify human hereditary traits, placing too much emphasis or value on arbitrary characteristics rather than considering the individual as a whole. Objectification has also been raised as a concern in the medical treatment of patients in general.[7] Objectification refers to the way in which one person treats another person as an object and not as a human being. ... See also Medical doctor (BE), Physician (AE), and Medical school. ...

In this context, Tom Shakespeare, a sociologist and disability advocate, has argued that the new genomics "does not mark a radical departure" from the eugenic attitudes of the past (2002: 8-10), and that "the real problems of disabled people are social arrangements, not their impairments" [8].

Slippery slope

A commonly advanced criticism of eugenics is that, evidenced by its history, it inevitably leads to measures that are unethical (Lynn 2001). H. L. Kaye wrote of "the obvious truth that eugenics has been discredited by Hitler's crimes" (Kaye 1989). R. L. Hayman argued "the eugenics movement is an anachronism, its political implications exposed by the Holocaust" (Hayman 1990).

Steven Pinker has stated that it is "a conventional wisdom among left-leaning academics that genes imply genocide." He has responded to this "conventional wisdom" by comparing the history of Marxism, which had the opposite position on genes to that of Nazism: Steven Pinker Steven Pinker (born September 18, 1954, in Montreal, Canada) is one of the most prominent cognitive scientists today. ... Marxism is the social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

But the 20th century suffered “two” ideologies that led to genocides. The other one, Marxism, had no use for race, didn't believe in genes and denied that human nature was a meaningful concept. Clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous. It's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means (eugenics or social engineering) and the belief that humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones.[9]

Richard Lynn argues that any social philosophy is capable of ethical misuse. Though Christian principles have aided in the abolition of slavery and the establishment of welfare programs, he notes that the Christian church has also burned many dissidents at the stake and waged wars against nonbelievers in which Christian crusaders slaughtered large numbers of women and children. Lynn argues the appropriate response is to condemn these killings, but believing Christianity "inevitably leads to the extermination of those who do not accept its doctrines" is unwarranted (Lynn 2001). Richard Lynn is a professor of psychology in Northern Ireland. ...

Genetic diversity

Eugenic policies could also lead to loss of genetic diversity, in which case a culturally accepted improvement of the gene pool may, but wouldn't necessarily, result in biological disaster due to increased vulnerability to disease, reduced ability to adapt to environmental change and other factors both known and unknown. This kind of argument from the precautionary principle is itself widely criticized. Genetic diversity is a characteristic of ecosystems and gene pools that describes an attribute which is commonly held to be advantageous for survival -- that there are many different versions of otherwise similar organisms. ... The gene pool of a species or a population is the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of that species or population. ... The precautionary principle, a phrase first used in English circa 1988, is the idea that if the consequences of an action are unknown, but are judged to have some potential for major or irreversible negative consequences, then it is better to avoid that action. ...

The possible elimination of the autism genotype will likely renew the debate over eugenics. This is a significant political issue in the autism rights movement which claims autism is a form of neurodiversity. Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. ... The genotype is the specific genetic makeup (the specific genome) of an individual, usually in the form of DNA. It codes for the phenotype of that individual. ... The autism rights movement was started by adult autistic individuals in order to advocate and demand tolerance for what they refer to as their neurodiversity. ... Neurodiversity is a concept that atypical neurological wiring (neurodivergence) is a normal human difference that is to be tolerated and respected as any other human difference. ...

Counterarguments

One website on logic has used the statement "Eugenics must be wrong because it was associated with the Nazis" as an example of the association fallacy. [10] An association fallacy is a type of logical fallacy which asserts that qualities of one are inherently qualities of another, merely by association. ...

Eugenics in popular culture

Eugenics is a recurrent theme in science fiction (often dystopian) - the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley explores the theme in depth, as does the more recent (and up-to-date on the science) movie Gattaca, whose plot turns around genetic testing. Boris Vian (under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan) takes a more light-hearted approach in his novel Et on tuera tous les affreux. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A dystopia (or alternatively cacotopia) is a fictional society, usually portrayed as existing in a future time, when the conditions of life are extremely bad due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. ... Book cover of Brave New World. ... Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. ... For the suburb of Liverpool in England, see Gateacre. ... Genetic testing allows the genetic diagnosis of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases, and can also be used to determine a persons ancestry. ... Boris Vian (March 10, 1920 - June 23, 1959) was a French writer, poet, singer, and musician, who also wrote under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. ...

Other novels touching upon the subject include The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. The Eugenics Wars are a significant part of the background story of the Star Trek universe. Eugenics are also a significant part of the plot of the James Bond movie Moonraker. The Gate to Womens Country (ISBN 0553280643) is a post-apocalyptic novel by Sheri S. Tepper written in 1988. ... Sheri Stewart Tepper (born 1929) is a prolific author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels, frequently with a feminist slant. ... That Hideous Strength is a novel by C. S. Lewis first published in 1945. ... Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ... The Eugenics Wars are a backstory event in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... Star Trek collectively refers to a science-fiction franchise spanning six unique television series, 726 episodes and ten motion pictures in addition to hundreds of novels, video games, and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the mid-1960s. ... The James Bond 007 gun logo James Bond, also known as Agent 007 (or just 007) (pronounced double-oh seven), is a fictional British spy created by writer Ian Fleming in 1953. ... A 2002 Penguin Books paperback edition Moonraker is the third James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. ...

There tends to be a eugenic undercurrent in the science fiction concept of the supersoldier. Several depictions of these supersoldiers usually have them bred for combat or genetically selected for attributes that are beneficial to modern or future combat. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Supersoldier is a fictional term often used to describe a soldier that operates beyond normal physical human limits. ...

In the novel Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein, a large trust fund is created to give financial encouragement to marriage among people whose parents and grandparents were long-lived. The result is a subset of Earth's population who have above-average lifespans. Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1973. ... Heinlein autographing at the 1976 Worldcon Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential and controversial authors in science fiction. ...

See also Genetic engineering in fiction. Genetic engineering is a popular subject of fiction, especially science fiction. ...

See also

• Artificial selection
• Biological determinism
• Carrie Buck
• Charles Goethe
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Genetic determinism
• Human evolution
• Project Prevention
• Pioneer Fund
• Race and intelligence
• Repository for Germinal Choice
• Social Justice
• The Genographic Project
• William Shockley

This Chihuahua mix and Great Dane show the wide range of dog breed sizes created using artificial selection. ... Categories: Biology stubs ... Categories: People stubs | 1906 births | 1983 deaths ... Charles M. Goethe (1875 – 1966) was an entrepreneur, land developer, philanthropist, conservationist, founder of the Eugenics Society of Northern California, and a native and lifelong resident of Sacramento, California. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (IPA:) (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a German philosopher, whose critiques of contemporary culture, religion, and philosophy centered around a basic question regarding the foundation of values and morality. ... Genetic determinism is the idea that an individuals genes determine to a large degree all aspects of their behaviour. ... Human evolution is the process of change and development, or evolution, by which human beings emerged as a distinct species. ... Project Prevention (formerly known as Children Requiring a Caring Community or C.R.A.C.K.) is an organization which pays drug addicts and alcoholics $200 for volunteering to receive long-term birth control or sterilization. ... The Pioneer Fund is a foundation that aims to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences. ... Bell curve showing results of studies comparing races and ethnic groups with IQ among U.S. test subjects show differences in average test scores, though the distributions overlap, as seen in this graph based on Reynolds et al. ... The Repository for Germinal Choice (originally known as the Hermann J. Muller Repository for Germinal Choice) was a sperm bank that existed in Escondido, California from 1980 to 1999. ... Social Justice is a concept that has fascinated philosophers ever since Plato rebuked the young Sophist, Thrasymachus, for asserting that justice was whatever the strongest decided it would be. ... The Genographic Project aims to map historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from over 100,000 people across five continents. ... William Bradford Shockley (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) American physicist, eugenicist and co-inventor of the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. ...

References

Early works on eugenics

• Francis Galton, "Eugenics: Its definition, scope, and aims," The American Journal of Sociology 10:1 (July 1904).
• Francis Galton, Hereditary genius: an inquiry into its laws and consequences (London: Macmillan, 1869). (Galton's first comprehensive work on eugenics)
• Francis Galton, "Hereditary talent and character", Macmillan's Magazine 12 (1865): 157-166 and 318-327. (Galton's first article on heredity and eugenics)
• Francis Galton, Inquiries into human faculty and its development (London, Macmillan, 1883). (Galton coins the word "eugenics")

Histories of eugenics

Many modern histories of eugenics are very critical of its history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Not all scholars are in agreement about what implications the histories of eugenics have for the present or future of genetics and society.

• Mark Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian attitudes in American thought (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963). (Early work on the history of eugenics)
• Daniel Kevles, In the name of eugenics: Genetics and the uses of human heredity (New York: Knopf, 1985). (Most recent survey work on the history of eugenics)
• Stefan Kühl, The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American racism, and German National Socialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). (On the connections between U.S. and Nazi eugenics and eugenicists)
• Dieter Kuntz, ed., Deadly medicine: creating the master race (Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2004). (On the use of science for eugenics in the U.S. and the Holocaust) online exhibit
• Diane B. Paul, "Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics," in Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 214-239. (Darwin's assessment of Galton)
• Robert Proctor, Racial hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988). (On the mobilization of the medical community under the Nazi state and the development of the racial hygiene movement)
• Paul Weindling, Health, race and German politics between national unification and Nazism, 1870-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989). (On the development of hygiene movements in Germany)

Histories of hereditarian thought

• Elazar Barkan, The retreat of scientific racism: changing concepts of race in Britain and the United States between the world wars (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). (On the changing attitudes towards race and biology in the 20th century academic community)
• Stephen J. Gould, The mismeasure of man (New York: Norton, 1981). (Looks at the history of using science for racist purposes)
• Donald A. MacKenzie, Statistics in Britain, 1865-1930: The social construction of scientific knowledge (Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 1981). (On the development of 19th century eugenics and theories of heredity)

Criticisms of modern eugenics

• Tom Shakespeare, Genetic Politics: from Eugenics to Genome, with Anne Kerr (New Clarion Press, 2002).
• Robert L. Hayman, Presumptions of justice: Law, politics, and the mentally retarded parent. Harvard Law Review 1990, 103, 1202-71. (p. 1209)
• H. L. Kaye, The social meaning of modern biology 1987, New Haven, CT Yale University Press. (p. 46)

Advocates of modern eugenics

• Richard Lynn, Eugenics: A Reassessment (Human Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence) (Praeger Publishers, 2001).
• Thomas Sowell, Ethnic America. Basic Books, 1981. ISBN 0465020755

Other references

• James D. Watson, A passion for DNA: Genes, genomes, and society (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2000). (Co-discoverer of DNA talks about genes and ethics)
• Nicholas Agar, Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement (Blackwell, 2004).

Daniel J. Kevles is Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, a position he assumed in 2001. ... Donald A. MacKenzie is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Richard Lynn is a professor of psychology in Northern Ireland. ... Thomas Sowell Thomas Sowell (born 30 June 1930) is a prominent American economist, political writer, and conservative-libertarian[1] commentator. ... James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. ...

Further reading

• Mark B. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). ISBN 0195053613
• Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003). [11] ISBN 1568582587
• Edwin Black, "Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection", San Francisco Chronicle (9 Nov 2003).
• Elof Axel Carlson, The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea (Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2001). ISBN 0879695870
• Michael Crichton, State of Fear, (New York: HarperCollins, 2004). ISBN 0066214130 (contains an appendix on eugenics, politics, and science in the US.)
• Nancy Ordover, American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2003). ISBN 0816635595
• Tom Shakespeare, "Back to the Future? New Genetics and Disabled People", Critical Social Policy 46:22-35 (1995)

Edwin Black is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling investigative author of 45 bestselling editions in 13 languages in 60 countries, as well as scores of newspaper and magazine articles in the leading publications of the United States, Europe and Israel. ... Michael Crichton Dr. John Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942, pronounced cry-ton ) is an author, film producer and television producer. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Eugenics

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...

Anti-eugenics and historical websites

• Eugenics Archive - Historical Material on the Eugenics Movement (funded by the Human Genome Project)
• Eugenics Watch
• Shoaheducation.com:Eugenics
• Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History
• University of Virginia Historical Collections: Eugenics
• "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibit)
• DNA: Pandora's Box - PBS documentary about DNA, the Human Genome Project, and questions about a "new" eugenics
• Fighting Fire with Fire: African Americans and Hereditarian Thinking, 1900-1942 - article on the support of eugenics by African American thinkers
• "Eugenics -- Breeding a Better Citizenry Through Science", a historical critique from physical anthropologist Jonathan Marks

The Human Genome Project (HGP) endeavored to map the human genome down to the nucleotide (or base pair) level and to identify all the genes present in it. ... The Human Genome Project (HGP) endeavored to map the human genome down to the nucleotide (or base pair) level and to identify all the genes present in it. ... An African-American (also Afro-American, Black American, or black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Jonathan Marks is a biological anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. ...

Pro-eugenics websites

• Eugenics - a planned evolution for life
• The Eugenics List - Yahoo group
• Future Generations Eugenics Portal
• Millennium Eugenics Section
• Mankind Quarterly
• Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century by John Glad
• Creative Conscious Evolution: A Eugenics Directory
• Scandalizing the Science of Eugenics, editor's note, The Occidental Quarterly 4:1 (Spring 2004).

Other

• "As Gene Test Menu Grows, Who Gets to Choose?" Amy Harmon, New York Times (21 July 2004).