Purpose Of Eugenics

Eugenics essentially began as a good thing. Early genicists had the intention of improving the quality of the human population by selecting desired traits. Because of the limited knowledge available in the early nineteen-hundreds this approach to changing the gene pool seemed reasonable. The researchers believe that by controlling human “reproductive” conditions like mental retardation psychiatric illness and physical illness / disabilities could be destroyed. The scientific data to prove these statements would never surface.

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”.

From the reading, the one thing that stood out the most is how eugenics came about and how poor white trash were seen as having an illness and disease to justify their social class status. The whole concept of eugenics just doesn’t quite sit well with me due to the fact that it believes there is a set of individuals who are superior to others, what justify that? Under what conditions does society have the right to make a reproductive choice for someone else? Chapter 3 talks about how three generations of imbeciles is enough, but in my opinion, it is not up to society to cut reproduction, especially when family and heirs have such an importance to people, regardless of social class because it has become a norm, to have a family. Although eugenics

I support the guidelines outlined by Kitcher for the use of genetic information because of their responsible and ethical nature. I believe that future generations will benefit as a direct consequence of these guidelines. I shall begin by defining eugenics as the study of human genetics to improve inherited characteristics of the human race by the means of controlled selective breeding.

Eugenics is the scientific belief that through “selective breeding… and [the] restriction of reproduction by birth control or surgical procedures” (Thomson), a ‘better’ and more productive society could develop. Similar to the ideas of Social Darwinists, Eugenicists used medical intervention to weed out the unfit members of society(anyone who was not white), and continued to grow the population of the ‘fit members. People believed that ‘unfit’ members of society had genes that would bring society down as a whole, and “race mixing, or crossbreeding, would deplete the national fitness of Anglo-Saxon Americans” (Thomson). Eugenics during the progressive Era: Although most progressive thinkers were against the Social Darwinist theory, there

Eugenics is the social construction of the human race by controlling reproduction. “Reducing the number of unfit people the term refers to the effort to improve a human population by either encouraging the reproduction of desired traits or preventing the reproduction of undesirable one” (Bethel University). The eugenics movement in America support laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage, family planning, sterilization of the poor, disabled and education about human reproduction. They are in favor of reproduction among those thought to be the most genetically fit with characteristics such as hardworking, intelligent and physically fit. On the other had the movement discourage reproduction of the unfit considered to have

The Eugenics era was said to have ended in 1981 with the last case of forced sterilization. The ideology of eugenics is viewed as pseudoscience now and as a inhumane event in American history. However, there are many individuals who still hold the same sentiment. This is evident in laws and different organizations in America. African Americans make up 13% of the population, however they make up 40% of inmates. This is due to racial bias leading to mass incarceration of minorities, specifically Black men. America implements racial bias laws and acts, such as the War on Drugs and alters the message to show it in positive light. The Dream Act proposed in America was not passed, however there is DACA for illegal immigrants. In this year Trump

At the beginning of the 20th century, power and prestige was held by the majority of (if not only) White people. African Americans were living under Jim Crow laws, Native Americans were forced into reservations and all of the new immigrants were in crowded ghettos. Those that were a race other than White were at “the bottom of the social and political hierarchy.” One of the aims of the Eugenics Movement was racial purification. Using the concept of Mendelian genes, scientists would try to breed the best, smartest, most talented, most beautiful and always white individuals and breed out the worst and weakest colored individuals. Mixed race people were seen as not put together because it was a combination of the best and worst traits someone could have.” Frederick Hoffman, presented data, statistics and a theory that claimed African Americans would become extinct because of high death and disease rates that were caused by African Americans being biologically lesser than Whites. However, his analysis was flawed because it failed to mention how systematic poverty and social neglect could be affecting the health of African Americans.

I grew up in a Mexican family listening to corridos, which are a type of song, due to the fact that at every party, every celebration, and every occasion, that’s what the family would play. As I became more aware and conscious, I began to realize what these songs were actually saying. Corridos are a narrative song that showcase topics such as poverty, hard times, success, immigration, social and political problems, and/or life in general. A prominent and recurring theme that I saw developing throughout several corridos is immigration. Numerous songs, were expressing strong feelings whom many many undocumented Mexicans (or now U.S. residents/citizens), including my parents and other family members shared regarding they’re citizenship status, how they were being discriminated against, and ultimately how they were feeling about this whole situation.

Hell is a road that was paved with good intentions; this cliché quintessentially describes the eugenics movement. Eugenics is the controlled reproduction of individuals; the main focus of eugenics is to isolate “good” genes from “bad” genes (Dolan DNA Learning Center). The main goal of Eugenics is to create a higher quality human race (Dolan DNA Learning Center). This movement became the center of which the twentieth century orbited around. The movement swayed numerous significant policies, which were implemented within the United States, ranging from immigration to sterilization (Selden). What is truly unsettling is the radical nature of the eugenics movement, which was originally founded with good intentions by Francis Galton (Carlson). The Eugenics movement made headway owing to the fact that America was frantic for a solution to social problems and believed that this scientific approach was the solution it yearned for; this is evident from the origin, purpose, supporters and policies that resulted from eugenics.

Just think about a human race free of genetic disease where everyone is intelligent and where society and technology advance at staggering rates. This is the future that is envisioned by those who advocate eugenics. Eugenics is the study of methods to improve the human race by selection of parents based on their inherited characteristics (Hartl). The idea was first discussed by Sir Francis Galton in the 1880’s, but was widely unaccepted by people at first due to fear that it would take away their basic human rights and be misused (Hartl). In the early 20th century, eugenics was a very popular and widespread idea in the United States and there were laws created to encourage certain people to have children, while discouraging others from procreating (Morris 66). The main reason eugenics has fell into such disfavor is because the Nazis cited it as the reason for the Holocaust (Morris 66). The use of eugenics by the Nazis can be compared to the use Islam by ISIS, or the use of Christianity by the Westboro Baptist Church. It is a concept that can be misused based on interpretation and extremism. Eugenics itself is just an idea to improve the human race by selective breeding, not by killing millions. Forms of eugenics should be implemented in society because they eliminate genetic diseases and problems, spread favorable traits and attributes, create a more intelligent and less flawed society, and help advance the human race as a whole.

There is much bias and confusion surrounding the topic of eugenics. Many times the reason for this is the lack of understanding of what the term means, where it states “In 1883, Sir Francis Galton, a respected British scholar, and cousin of Charles Darwin, first used the term eugenics, meaning ‘well-born.’ (Genetics Generation, 2015).” This term has evolved to encompass more than just “well-born” as can be seen in the encyclopedia. “The eleventh edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica defines eugenics as ‘the organic betterment of the race through wise application of the laws of heredity.’ (Court, 2004).” The meaning of the word eugenics, due to the way it has been used, confuses many people.

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

User requirement analysis approaches fall within two major categories, which are supply-driven and demand-driven. Supply-driven approaches which is also called as data-driven, start with an analysis of all the available operational data. This is a bottom-up technique introduced by Inmon (1996) with emphasis on underlying operational data sources as the basis to establish the scope and the functionality of a DW. Data-driven approach starts with identifying all available data within transactional data source and analyses it in order to produce data mapping.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a slum as “a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganisation”. Though there are multitudes of definitions for the word “slum”, few of them are actually very differing from each other – generally, it is mutually agreed that a slum is an crowded urban district inhabited by many people who are affected by poverty. One district that displays these qualities is the area of Dharavi. The third-largest slum in the world, Dharavi is located in the west of Mumbai, India’s capital city (refer to Figure 1).