Eugenics: The Ugly History of a Bad Idea

HIST 174

What is eugenics?

Controlling the human population through restrictions of of reproductive rights for the betterment of the national or ethnic population.

How did Darwin’s Origin of Species influence eugenics?

It inadvertently promoted the idea that if natural selection was a mechanism that cultivated populations humans could wield artificial selection to develop desired traits in domesticated species and possibly humans.

What is the concept from the 19th century that posited biological and cultural decline as hereditary issue?

The degeneration theory claimed the asocial problem and illness of the species were the result of hereditary decline.

Who was Francis Galton?

(1822-1911) Fancis Galton was a British applied mathematician, trained doctor , and cousin of Darwin who wanted to study the ‘degeneration’ and hereditary systematically.

Coined the term eugenics.

Wanted to improve the human stock.

Publishes Inquiries into the Human Faculty and Its Development in 1883

Who linked crime to a biological ‘atavism’, believing criminals were born with specific physical and mental traits of primitive humans(high cheek bones, large/protruding jaws, and asymmetrical faces)?

Cesare Lombroso - AnItalian criminologist

What is the difference between Social Darwinism and Eugenics?

Social Darwinism celebrates the rich, believing the rich are wealthy because they are the ‘fittest’ of society. It also argues for a laissez-faire approach to social policy that reduces safety nets that allows the best to succeed and the weak to die off.

Eugenics requires intervention and controlled breeding. Intentionally breeding the best for the sake of a greater (national or ethnic) population.

Who was the Augustinian monk who did experiments on pea plants and what was the title of the paper he published in 1865?

Greor Mendel published “Experiments in Plant Hybridization” in 1865.

What did Medel prove about heritability?

Heritable traits could not be blended out.

What is Lamarkism? Why is it rejected?

Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also called the inheritance of acquired characteristics or more recently soft inheritance.

Disproved by Mendel’s experiments. Behaviors as a result of the environment are not heritable.

Who is Charles Davenport and what did he found?

Charles Davenport (1866-1944) was a Harvard-trained American biologist who:

• Promoted Mendelism - Traits can’t be blended out

• In 1898, becomes the Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, later the director of its Station for Experimental Evolution in 1904

• In 1910 he founded the Eugenics Record Office with the aid of private philanthropists (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Mary Williamson Averell Harriman) to collect and study information on American families

• believed that ALL traits are heritable

What are the ways that the Eugenics Record Office collects data?

“Fitter Family” and “Better Baby” competitions at fairs were used to encourage people to reproduce good-looking offspring and bring them in to be measured.

How did fears about fertility play a role in eugenics?

The upper class feared degeneration because they feared a low fertility rate compared to lower classes.

Legislation was enacted on this fear

• Immigration Act of 1924

• Chinese Exculsion Act of 1882 - Banned immigration for Chinese laborers

What type of laws do US states start passing in 1907 to prevent ‘criminals, rapists, and imbicles’ from reproducing?

Sterilization laws. It became the state’s right and often iterative to sterilize those who were seen as a detriment to the population.

What was the court case Buck vs. Bell?

Buck v. Bell was a landmark 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld Virginia's forced sterilization law, allowing states to sterilize individuals deemed "unfit" for reproduction.

Who do the US eugenicists cooperate with until the 1930’s?

The Nazis. The Nazis adopted policies inspired by the Virginia and California sterilization laws.

In 1933, the Reich passed the law for the

prevention of genetically diseased progeny targeting people with physical deformities, hereditary epilepsy, schizophrenia, various medical disabilities

What were German doctors told to do when they determined an individual had a mental disability, illness, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, or physical deformity?

They were required t report such cases that were then put before the special hereditary health courts.

Sterilization was often mandated even if the individual was no institutionalized.

What is the concern with periodization especially in regards to eugenics?

This packs eugenics into a nice and tidy box that does not acknowledge that elements of eugenics that still persist today.

Forced sterilization continues until the 1970’s and disproprtionaltyl affect black women.

1950’s and 60’s - Defective people produce defective children that are a burden to society