Compare And Contrast Charles Darwin's Theory Of Eugenics

Most of the trait studied by eugenicist have little genetic basis. The probability that other Factors such as environmental, poor housing, poor nutrition, and not proper education were

The Oxford University Press defines eugenics as “the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics” with a further—and rather illuminating—explanation which states, “Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis”.

The Immigration Act, passed in 1924, was passed in large part to prevent immigrants from other countries from being able to marry and have children with an American citizen (Kevles 1985, 97). The common belief was that foreigners would weaken the gene pool in America (Kevles 1985, 97). State governments also began requiring citizens to pass a mental health test in order to be married and even went so far as to sterilize criminals or those who were mentally handicapped (Kevles 1985, 100). The blatant disregard for people’s rights was the biggest problem with the eugenics movement. It was started as an attempt to try and improve society that instead began to focus on mistreating those who were in the lower

Contrary to Kitcher’s minimalist model that constrains eugenic decisions only to avoid neurological diseases, Gregory Stock’s position in the debate defends maximalist eugenics in which individuals have total free eugenic decision-making, including enhancement, without any state coercion. He wants readers to accept and adopt such a position by arguing that genetic engineering such as selecting and alternating embryos is an inevitable future and human destiny (7, Stock, CC p.279). For example, if redesigning humans became commonplace, Stock reasons that parents would give their children endowments they desire but could not otherwise obtain and thus further expand life’s possibilities to the next generation (8, Stock, CC p.276). In this society, people’s genes would become an embodiment of their parents’ values and preferences. People would arguably want such endowments since they would view modifications as beneficial in

Other than our desire for perfection, we as humans also have another desire: to learn about ourselves. We have the desire to explore our humanity. We often like to look within ourselves and question things about ourselves. In this way, eugenics should be explored in order to answer questions we have about ourselves. " Humanly speaking, the new genetics seems to have five dimensions or meanings: (1) genetics as a route to self-understanding, a way of knowing ourselves; (2) genetics as a route to new medical therapies, a way of curing ourselves; (3) genetics as a potential tool for human re-engineering, a prospect I find far-fetched; (4) genetics as a means of knowing something about our biological destiny, about our health and sickness in the future; and (5) genetics as a tool for screening the traits of the next generation, for choosing some lives and rejecting others."

Starting in the late 19th century, American philosophers, theorists, and scientists began experimenting and theorizing the idea of eugenics. Derived from Darwinian theories and the extensive works of Gregor Mendel, eugenics is known as a set of practices aimed at enhancing the human genome into sameness. Edwin Black’s “War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race” looks at the horrific background of eugenics, the ones who supported it, and the twisted ends it came to. This source, along with the two others, brings light to the awful means pursued to obtain a brilliant, but illogical and immoral goal of sameness. Overall, a negative vibe is shown through these sources.

Eugenics has been an exceptionally questionable science that has existed on the planet for a considerable length of time. Eugenics, also knows as selective breeding is characterized as the investigation of or confidence in the likelihood of enhancing the characteristics of the human species or a human populace by such means as disheartening reproduction by people having hereditary deformities or attempted to have inheritable undesirable attributes or empowering proliferation by people dared to have inheritable attractive qualities

Francis Galton’s ideas on heredity were based on the theories of heredity and evolution within The Origin of Species, written by his cousin, Charles Darwin. Galton sought to apply Darwin’s concept of selective breeding to man in an effort to improve upon British society. When speaking to the Sociological Society at London University in 1904, Galton defined 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”(1904). Galton’s initial attempts to apply the concept of eugenics to the improvement of humanity proved futile, up until 1900. According to the historian, Allen E Garland, “ With the rediscovery of Mendel’s law of heredity in 1900, however, the study of heredity in general and eugenics in particular found fertile ground, particularly in the United States (225). Eugenics would fast become a prevalent movement the world over, but nowhere more so than in the United States and

Eugenics profoundly impacted the culture of the twentieth century. Coined in 1893 by Sir Francis Galton, it studied the heredity and selection of favorable traits. Born out of the social tumults of the late nineteenth century, it represented the Western elite’s attempt to protect itself from so called “inferior” cultures of the colonies and “new wave” immigration.

In 1883, Francis Galton coined the word eugenics composed of the two Greek words “well” and “born” (Galton 1883, p.138) to represent his studies on heredity and evolution. This idea was sparked after Charles Darwin published his theory of Natural Selection in 1859. Though his theory of Natural Selection was fascinating, what intrigued researchers and scientist the most was how Darwin explained Artificial

The eugenics movement began in the 20th century by a man named Francis Galton. As the cousin of Charles Darwin, Galton believed that eugenics was a moral philosophy to improve humanity by encouraging the ablest and healthiest people to have more children (Carlson). This Galtonian ideal of eugenics is often thought of as positive eugenics. Eugenics can be defined as the outgrowth of human heredity aimed at "improving" the quality of the human stock (Allen and Bird). At the other end of the spectrum is what can be classified as negative eugenics and is presently in disrepute. Negative eugenics entails selective breeding in which the least able from the population is taken out of the reproduction pool to preserve humanity's best traits.

Either way, Galton influenced researchers to consider taking a scientific focus on their theories of intelligence. One of the researchers Galton influenced was James McKeen Cattell who brought Galton’s ideas to the United States and proposed a series of 50 psychophysical tests (1890). As a matter of fact, Cattell’s psychophysical tests could later not be validated by his student, Clark Wissler (1901). Even theorists that have focused their theories of intelligence on Galton’s views have recognized that Galton had very simplistic views (e.g., Hunt, Frost, Lunneborg, 1973). All things considered, Galton’s controversial views of intelligence (which has since been carried down to present day) have had a profound impact on the area of intelligence.

The roots of eugenics can be traced back to Britain in the early 1880’s when Sir Francis Galton generated the term from the Greek word for “well-born”. He defined eugenics as the science of improving stock, whether human or animal. According to the American Eugenics Movement, today’s study of eugenics has many similarities to studies done in the early 20th century. Back then, “Eugenics was, quite literally, an effort to breed better human beings – by encouraging the reproduction of people with "good" genes and discouraging those with "bad" genes.” (www.eugenicsarchive.org) According to Merriam-Webster, the modern day definition of eugenics is, a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of

Binet argued forcefully against the idea that intelligence is fixed or innate: "We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism (Lewontin, Rose, & Kamen, 1984)." However, those who translated his test into English tended to disagree, arguing that the test measured an innate and immutable, genetically inherited characteristic. After Binet's death in 1911, the Galtonian eugenicists assumed control, shifting the focus firmly toward genetic explanations by insisting that differences in intelligence between social classes and races were due to inherent genetic differences.

The theory of Eugenics can be dated back all the way to 400 B.C. but was not popularized until the mid-1800s by an English scientist, Francis Galton. He researched and published the theory that aimed to improve the genetic quality of the human population through selective breeding (NC Office of Archives and History). As the half-cousin of Charles Darwin, Galton applied the Darwinism science (survival of the fittest) to heredity characteristics. Two types of Eugenics stemmed from the theory, positive and negative. Positive eugenics is encouraging the “best” people in the society based on financial and personal features to have more children while negative eugenics is picking people with flaws and defects from the population