The Rise and Fall of the Eugnics Movement Essay

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”.

History throughout the United States has multiple positive and negative attributions that reflect onto today’s society. One circumstance that has been partially neglected was the eugenics movement in America; the notion of eugenics occurring in the United States is infrequently brought up today. According to Dr. Laura Rivard, the average person most likely does not even know what eugenics is. An English intellectual named of Francis Galton is responsible for starting this movement. Eugenics can briefly be defined as exploiting the fundamentals of genetics and heredity for the benefit of superiorizing the human race.

Future eugenicists can extort their knowledge and use it to their advantage. Eugenics is an interesting subject that is co-dependent on society; the future holds great possibilities for acknowledgment in this field of science.

The controversy associated with fear of Eugenics hovers over the development in human genetics. Eugenics became popular in the 19th century, at a time in which people were infatuated with superior fitness, competition, and biological rationalizations of inequality ( In The Name Of Darwin). People brought up Darwin’s analogy of survival of the fittest. When discussing the topic of superiority between two races. Many social Darwinists insisted that this analogy should be implemented on the human race, and that deleterious traits were a result from heredity. These people believed that weak individuals were a complication in the human race, and that they should face death. Francis Dalton, Darwin’s cousin, promoted the idea of creating a master race. Dalton believed that the undesirables should be gotten rid

In this paper I will be analyzing the social construct of deviance and the topic of Eugenics theoretically, and how this practice transitioned from being deviant back in the early 20th century to a modern technology that can be used to help parents have healthy children. I will use different scholarly sources to compare and review different positions in the theories used as they relate to the topic at hand.

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.

Throughout history, the field of eugenics, a termed coined by Francis Galton in 1883, is believed to have played a significant role in improving the genetic quality of the human populace in the context of World War I through the set of beliefs and practices. Eugenics is the experiment of giving the more suitable and more desirable races “a better chance of prevailing” speedily over the less desirable (3). Eugenics employed theory in World War I as well as the aftermath of the war. After ww1 germany sought help from whatever they could find a...Many individuals believed that by having a stronger population they would be better prepared for war. Better breeding involved using the known scientific principles of heredity, which in turn explains why the field of eugenics was appealing simply by determining the physical, physiological, and mental traits rationally employed to improve social problems. The weaker individuals are unfavorable to the general

Eugenics is a science that involves the improvement of the hereditary characteristics of a population through a controlled breeding mechanism (Gibson, 2007) Galton studies eugenics through a two phase method. Initially, Galton suggests that the theory that children born of great men become mediocre remains unwarranted. He seeks the invalidation of the theory through the establishment of the relations of men in great intellectual positions such as law, literature and power. While proof of heredity exists, Galton’s figures that the study remains limited by the fact that marriage patterns do not necessarily encourage the pairing up of two intellectual people. Galton’s second study hypothesizes

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.

He was building on his cousin's ideas from his book On the Origin of Species. According to Galton’s books, he seems to sway more in favor of nature, which connects back to his cousin’s breakthrough evolutionary theories. He had a book titled Natural Inheritance in which he discussed heredity and so it would seem that he was willing to weigh the options and consider all of the facts. Galton eventually developed the science of eugenics, so clearly he approved of the idea of nature shaping who we are, since he later believed that you could develop “the perfect person” by making sure the right genetic combinations combine to provide an optimal

In order to understand Germany’s widespread acceptance of the 1933 Law for Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring and the subsequent implementation of the T4 euthanasia program in 1939, it is necessary to discuss the scientific origins of eugenics. Within this discussion, a distinction must also be made between genetics and eugenics. German scientist Gregor Mendel is known to be the father of genetics. Between the years 1856 to 1863, he conducted groundbreaking research on the inheritance of plant hybrids. While the importance of Mendel’s work was not realized until sixteen years after his death in 1884, he has since been credited for his role in discovering the statistical laws of heredity; from which it was concluded that genetic traits could be transferred from one generation to the next. Following Mendel’s death, the principles outlined in his laws of heredity continued to serve as a reference point for scientific scholars, including Nazi physicians whom often cited Mendelian law in their justifications for sterilization and euthanasia.

Eugenics has been a very controversial science that has existed in the world for centuries. Eugenics is defined as “the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)(Dictionary.com, 2005).”

The definition of eugenics is to breed out undesirable traits. Based off of Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel’s studies, eugenics is accomplished through selective breeding. Dominant traits would replace recessive traits and the law of dominance would be ineffective. Originally, the idea behind eugenics was not completely bad. Over time though, problems surrounding it have been found. Dealing with positive and negative traits, questions have been asked about what constitutes as a negative trait and who decides which traits are

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