Eugenics

“Eugenics and Scientific Racism.” Genome.gov, https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Eugenics-and-Scientific-Racism.

Introduction

Eugenics has been a heavily debated topic over the past century. Eugenics is the selective mating of humans in order to create a population with the most desirable hereditary traits. The idea was first introduced by Francis Galton, who advocated for a society with individuals with “superior” and “more suitable” genes to build the most optimal future. Galton was the cousin of Charles Darwin, known to be the father of Darwinism, and a British natural scientist. His views heavily reflected aspects of Darwin’s natural selection, where the races with superior traits would prevail.

Origins

Even though eugenics originated in England, it soon began to spread to most European countries, North America, South America, Japan, China, and Russia. Eugenics was only scientifically introduced in the late 19th century, it has been a philosophical concept since ancient times. In Plato’s Republic, he highlights a society where humans work to improve their society by selective breeding. However, when Charles Darwin’s research on evolution broke through, the concept of eugenics came to life; it was believed that the human race had the ability to control the future of the generation. Out of this, the terms “positive eugenics” and “negative eugenics” were created, where positive eugenics was the encouraged reproduction among those with the most desirable traits, while negative eugenics was the discouragement of reproduction among the “defective stock.”

Eugenical sterilization has been the most common form of this scientific and social idea; those with undesirable traits, such as mental illness, disabilities, and hereditary diseases, were sterilized in order to prevent them from producing offspring and further damaging society. Eugenics became very popular in the United States during the 1930s, with considerable amounts of both support and opposition. However, Nazi Germany began to take eugenics very seriously in the early 1930s, where they began to use various methods to eliminate all non-Aryan populations. Nazi Germany is a prime example of the application of eugenics in a society, where only Aryan Germans would be encouraged to live and reproduce because they were the “superior race.” Due to the horrible racial crimes of Nazi Germany, eugenics’ reputation got tarnished; the ERO, Eugenic Records Office, was formally shut down. What was once regarded as a high science was now called a harmful pseudoscience.

Today

Forms of eugenics still exist today. Certain hereditary diseases, such as hemophilia, can be genetically screened in pregnant women. If there is a chance that the baby may inherit the disease, the couple can choose whether or not to terminate the pregnancy and eliminate that “undesirable” trait. The moral issues surrounding the shaping of society’s genetics are still a debated topic.

Works Cited

“Eugenics - Popular support for eugenics | Britannica.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/eugenics-genetics/Popular-support-for-eugenics. Accessed 28 February 2023.

Farber, Steven A. “U.S. Scientists' Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907–1939): A Contemporary Biologist's Perspective.” NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757926/. Accessed 28 February 2023.