Slide 1
- Galton believed that the natural selection mechanism was
broken due to philanthropy of the rich [1]
Galton defined eugenics as artificial selection
At this early stage, another definition by Galton was the
science of improvement of the human race germ plasm through better
breeding
Sir Francis Galton, father of eugenics
The Controversy of Eugenics:Is it all for the best?BASBI4U
What Does Eugenics Mean? - Eugenics is a term that has been
defined by many different people in many different ways - There are
actually two different types of eugenics, positive eugenics and
negative eugenics- Generally, eugenics is the belief that people
with favourable genes are more beneficial to a society - Many
people are not familiar with the term eugenics
Where Did Eugenics Originate?- The concepts of eugenics have
actually existed long before the Common Era of Man - Ancient Greek
principles stated that if a man was a peasant, his children would
also be peasants [4]- 1798 essay by Thomas Malthus laid the
groundwork for modern eugenics- Cousin of Charles Darwin, Sir
Francis Galton, first coined the term eugenics in 1883
Eugenics: 1900-1910Charles B. Davenport was one of the most
influential geneticists in the beginning of the 20th century
[3]
His initial definition of the aim of eugenics was to make young
people fall in love intelligently
He later went on to claim that people had genes in them for
feeblemindedness
He suggested that people with these genes should be sterilized
in order to prevent their reproduction
Eugenics: 1911-1920Davenport had begun to influence many people
by the 1910s that his ideas on eugenics were correct
The Binet immigration test was adopted in America in 1912: 80%
failure rate
A book in 1916 by avid eugenicist Madison Grant called The
Passing of the Great Race, just one of many eugenics books being
written at the time, brilliantly summarized the general idea of
eugenics
A rigid system of selection through theelimination of those who
are weak or unfit-- in other words social failures -- would allow
solve the whole question in one hundred years, as well as enable us
to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals, and
insane asylums. The individual himself can be nourished, educated
and protected by the community during his lifetime, but the state
through sterilization must see to it that his line stops with him,
or else future generations will be cursed with an ever increasing
load of misguided sentimentalism. This is a practical, merciful,
and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to
an ever widening circle of social discards,beginning always with
the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually
totypes which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and
perhaps ultimately toworthless race types."
- Madison Grant
Eugenics: 1921-1930Concepts of eugenics became increasingly
popular as time went on in the United States
Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1921, and abortion
became legal
Margaret Sanger, coined the term birth control and founded
Planned Parenthood
Eugenics: 1921-1930The American Eugenics Foundation was created
in 1922 by Henry Laughlin, Madison Grant, and Irving Fisher
They were funded by the some of the wealthiest companies in the
world at the time, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Carnegie Institution
They worked to get sterilization laws passed: some 60,000
Americans were sterilized and the marriages of thousands were
banned
Nazi Eugenics
Nazi Eugenics: 1931-1945 Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf expressed
deeply eugenic ideas: the idea of a master race
Adolf Hitler was inspired by the American eugenicists,
especially Madison Grant
There is today one state, in which at least weak beginnings
toward a better conception are noticeable. Of course, it is not our
model German Republic, but the United States. [2]
Nazi Eugenics: 1931-1945 Hitler was initially praised by many
eugenicists in America for his actions of sterilizing people he
deemed unfit
Hitler went on to exterminate 1/3 of the worlds Jewish
population, along with millions of others that he deemed unfit to
live and reproduce
The idea of gas chambers to exterminate was actually present in
a 1918 American eugenics book
Eugenics became vilified after the war was over
Eugenics: 1945-PresentScientists after the war, including
Archibald Garrod and George Beadle, changed the meaning of eugenics
from negative to positive
Negative eugenics implied sterilizing the unfit, positive
eugenics implied encouraging people with good genes to reproduce
together
Negative eugenics favoured those with blond hair and blue eyes,
and this idea was not just Hitlers: many people worldwide
agreed.
Eugenics in the 21st CenturyThe American Eugenics Society still
exists to this day, along with The Population Council mostly
genetic work is done with the ultimate goal of improving the human
gene pool through less aggressive methods
Planned Parenthood still exists to this day
Members of the American Eugenics Society funded and participated
in the Human Genome Project
Negative eugenics are still prevalent in some parts of the
world: i.e. the one baby only law in China
If a Chinese woman becomes pregnant again after having a child,
the baby is aborted, and the woman is possibly arrested.
The Case for Eugenics One needs to consider the direction that
humans are evolving in
Human intelligence is largely hereditary, and innate
intelligence of humans decides the quality of the civilization that
we live in
Since 1875, the average human IQ has dropped by 4.4 IQ points,
doubling the number of people with an IQ below 70 (legally
retarded) [5]
Egalitarianism is an illusion: poverty does not create crime,
people commit crimes because of their genes
If every retarded person were sterilized, the next generation
would decrease the number of mentally retarded people by 37% until
eventually retardation would be gone completely
Rather than wasting money catering to the unfit, money could be
put to good uses while the gene pool improves itself due to less
unfit people reproducing
The Case against EugenicsIt seriously violates human rights to
sterilize people
Some believe that eugenics is actually a pseudoscience with no
true evidence to back it up
It is immoral to abort babies, some consider it to be murder
Everyone deserves to be treated equally
Eugenics is incredibly racist and bigoted: there are often
biases such as the master race being pure white
Some believe egalitarianism to be true: people with so called
bad genes can be reformed by the institutes of society and overcome
them
My Opinion of EugenicsI support the concepts of positive and
negative eugenics: people with low intelligence should be
sterilized in order to build a better future
I do not however support Nazi Eugenics or any form of
exterminating races of people
What Do You Think?Is Eugenics A Good Solution?
Bibliography[1] American Bioethics Advisory Commission (1999).
Eugenics. Retrieved from http://www.all.org/abac/eugen02.htm[2]
Black, Edwin (2003). The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi
Eugenics. Retrieved from http://hnn.us/articles/1796.html[3] Marks,
Jonathan (2009). The Eugenics Page. Retrieved from:
http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/eugenics/eugenics.html[4] Turano,
Jordan (2000). Eugenics, Links to Planned Parenthood Ethical or
Not? Retrieved from:
http://www.cfpeople.org/SeminarianWritings/Sem036.html[5] Van
Court, Marian (2004).The Case for Eugenics in a Nutshell. Retrieved
from: http://www.eugenics.net/papers/caseforeugenics.html
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