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Eugenics is a social Philosophy which advocates the improvement of Human Hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.The exact definition of ''eugenics'' has been a matter of debate since the term was coined. The definition of it as a "social philosophy" (that is, a philosophy with implications for social order) is not meant to be definitive, and is taken from "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy" by Frederick Osborn in '' American Sociological Review '', Vol. 2, No. 3 (Jun., 1937) , pp. 389-397. The goals of various groups advocating eugenics have been to create healthier, more Intelligent people, to save society's Resources , and lessen human Suffering . More controversially, some, such as the Nazi regime in Germany, have sought to use it to preserve and enhance supposed "racial Purity" . Earlier proposed means of achieving these goals focused on Selective Breeding , while modern ones focus on Prenatal Testing and Screening , Genetic Counseling , Birth Control , In Vitro Fertilization , and Genetic Engineering . Opponents argue that eugenics is Immoral and is based on, or is itself, Pseudoscience . Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for coercive state-sponsored Discrimination and human rights violations, such as Forced Sterilization of persons who are claimed to have genetic defects, the killing of the Institutionalized population and, in some cases, outright Genocide of races perceived as inferior or undesirable. The modern field and term were first formulated by Sir began incorporating eugenic rhetoric into the Racial Policies of Nazi Germany . Since the Postwar period, both the public and the scientific communities have associated eugenics with Nazi abuses, such as enforced Racial Hygiene , Human Experimentation , and the Extermination of undesired population groups. However, developments in genetic, genomic, and reproductive technologies at the end of the 20th century have raised many new questions and concerns about what exactly constitutes the meaning of ''eugenics'' and what its ethical and moral status is in the modern era. MEANINGS AND TYPES OF EUGENICS The word ''eugenics'' Etymologically derives from the Greek word ''eu'' (''good'' or ''well'') and the suffix ''-genēs'' (''born''), and was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883. Eugenics has, from the very beginning, meant many different things to many different people. Historically, the term has referred to everything from prenatal care for mothers to forced sterilization and euthanasia. Much debate took place in the past, and takes place today, as to what exactly counts as eugenics.A discussion of the shifting meanings of the term can be found in Diane Paul, ''Controlling human heredity: 1865 to the present'' (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1995). ISBN 1-57392-343-5. Some types of eugenics, such as race-based eugenics and class-based eugenics, are sometimes called 'pseudo-eugenics' by proponents of strict eugenics that deals only with perceived beneficial and detrimental genetic traits. The term ''eugenics'' is often used to refer to movements and social policies that were influential during the early 20th century. In a historical and broader sense, eugenics can also be a study of "improving human genetic qualities". It is sometimes broadly applied to describe any human action whose goal is to improve the Gene Pool . Some forms of Infanticide in ancient societies, present-day Reprogenetics , preemptive abortions and Designer Babies have been (sometimes controversially) referred to as eugenic. Because of its Normative goals and historical association with Scientific Racism , as well as the development of the science of Genetics , the western scientific community has mostly disassociated itself from the term "eugenics", although one can find advocates of what is now known as '' Liberal Eugenics ''. Ideological Social Determinists , some of which have obtained college degrees in fields relevant to eugenics, often describe eugenics as a pseudoscience. Modern inquiries into the potential use of genetic engineering have led to an increased invocation of the history of eugenics in discussions of Bioethics , most often as a cautionary tale. Some Ethicists suggest that even non-coercive eugenics programs would be inherently unethical, though this view has been challenged by such thinkers as Nicholas Agar .For example, Nicholas Agar , ''Liberal Eugenics: In Defence of Human Enhancement'' (Blackwell, 2004). Eugenicists advocate specific policies that (if successful) would lead to a perceived improvement of the human gene pool. Since defining what improvements are desired or beneficial is perceived by many as a Cultural choice rather than a matter that can be determined objectively (e.g., by empirical, scientific inquiry), eugenics has often been deemed a Pseudoscience . The most disputed aspect of eugenics has been the definition of "improvement" of the human gene pool, such as what is a beneficial characteristic and what is a defect. This aspect of eugenics has historically been tainted with Scientific Racism . Early eugenicists were mostly concerned with perceived Intelligence factors that often correlated strongly with Social Class . Many eugenicists took inspiration from the Selective Breeding of animals (where Purebred s are often strived for) as their analogy for improving human society. The mixing of races (or Miscegenation ) was usually considered as something to be avoided in the name of Racial Purity . At the time this concept appeared to have some scientific support, and it remained a contentious issue until the advanced development of Genetics led to a scientific consensus that the division of the human species into unequal races is unjustifiable. Some see this as an ideological consensus, since equality, just like inequality, is a Cultural choice rather than a matter that can be determined objectively. Eugenics has also been concerned with the elimination of Hereditary Diseases such as Haemophilia and Huntington's Disease . However, there are several problems with labeling certain factors as "genetic defects":
Similar concerns have been raised when a Prenatal Diagnosis of a Congenital Disorder leads to Abortion (see also Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis ). Eugenic policies have been conceptually divided into two categories: Positive eugenics is aimed to encourage reproduction among the genetically advantaged. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning.Glad, 2008 Negative eugenics is aimed at lowering fertility among the genetically disadvantaged. This includes abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning.Glad, 2008 Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive. Abortion by " Fit " women was illegal in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1968. During the 20th century, many countries enacted various eugenics policies and programs, including:
Most of these policies were later regarded as coercive, restrictive, or genocidal, and now few jurisdictions implement policies that are explicitly labeled as eugenic or unequivocally eugenic in substance (however labeled). However, some private organizations assist people in Genetic Counseling , and Reprogenetics may be considered as a form of non-state-enforced "liberal" eugenics. There are 3 main ways by which the methods of eugenics can be applied. They are:
HISTORY Pre-Galtonian eugenic philosophies The basic ideals of eugenics can be found from the beginnings of Western civilization. The philosophy was most famously expounded by Plato , who believed human reproduction should be monitored and controlled by the state. The basic eugenic principle from Plato’s The Republic was, “The best men must have intercourse with the best women as frequently as possible, and the opposite is true of the very inferior." Plato understood that this form of government control would not be readily accepted, and proposed that the truth be concealed from the public via a fixed lottery. Mates, in Plato’s Republic, would be chosen by a “marriage number” in which the quality of the individual would be quantitatively analyzed, and persons of high numbers would be allowed to procreate with other persons of high numbers. In theory, this would lead to predictable results and the improvement of the human race. However, Plato acknowledged the failure of the “marriage number” since “gold soul” persons could still produce “bronze soul” children. This might have been one of the earliest attempts to mathematically analyze genetic inheritance, which was not perfected until the development of Mendelian genetics and the mapping of the Human Genome . Other ancient civilizations, such as Rome and Sparta , practiced Infanticide as a form of phenotypic selection. In Sparta, newborns were inspected by the city's elders, who decided the fate of the infant. This would be done through abandonment of “weak” or undesirable babies on the slopes of Mount Taygetos, and trials for babies which included bathing them in wine and exposing them to the elements. To Sparta, this would ensure that only the strongest survived and procreated.Allen G. Roper, ''Ancient Eugenics'' (Oxford: Cliveden Press, 1913), text at {Link without Title} The 12 Tables of Roman Law, established early in the formation of the Roman Republic, stated in the fourth table that deformed children would be put to death. In addition, patriarchs in Roman society were given the right to "discard" infants at their discretion. This was often done by drowning undesired newborns in the Tiber River . The practice of infanticide in the ancient world did not subside until the Christianization of the Roman empire. Galton's theory initially developed the ideas of eugenics using social statistics.]] During the 1860s and 1870s, Sir Francis Galton systematized these ideas and practices according to new knowledge about the evolution of man and animals provided by the theory of his cousin Charles Darwin . After reading Darwin's '' Origin Of Species '', Galton built upon Darwin's ideas whereby the mechanisms of Natural Selection were potentially thwarted by human Civilization . He reasoned that, since many human societies sought to protect the underprivileged and weak, those societies were at odds with the natural selection responsible for extinction of the weakest. Only by changing these social policies, Galton thought, could society be saved from a "reversion towards mediocrity", a phrase that he first coined in statistics and which later changed to the now common " Regression Towards The Mean ".See Chapter 3 in Donald A. MacKenzie , ''Statistics in Britain, 1865-1930: The social construction of scientific knowledge'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981). Galton first sketched out his theory in the 1865 article "Hereditary Talent and Character", then elaborated it further in his 1869 book ''Hereditary Genius''.Francis Galton, "Hereditary talent and character" , ''Macmillan's Magazine'' 12 (1865): 157-166 and 318-327; (although neither he nor Darwin yet had a working model of this type of heredity). He concluded that, since one could use Artificial Selection to exaggerate traits in other animals, one could expect similar results when applying such models to humans. As he wrote in the introduction to ''Hereditary Genius'': :I propose to show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. Consequently, as it is easy, notwithstanding those limitations, to obtain by careful selection a permanent breed of dogs or horses gifted with peculiar powers of running, or of doing anything else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly-gifted race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations.Galton, ''Hereditary Genius'': 1. According to Galton, society already encouraged Dysgenic conditions, claiming that the less intelligent were out-reproducing the more intelligent. Galton did not propose any selection methods; rather, he hoped that a solution would be found if social Mores changed in a way that encouraged people to see the importance of breeding. Galton first used the word ''eugenic'' in his 1883 ''Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development'', "Galton coinced the word "eugenics" in his 1883 book, ''Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development''. a book in which he meant "to touch on various topics more or less connected with that of the cultivation of race, or, as we might call it, with 'eugenic' questions." He included a footnote to the word "eugenic" which read: :That is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, ''eugenes'' namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, ''eugeneia'', etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognisance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word ''eugenics'' would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalised one than ''viriculture'' which I once ventured to use.Francis Galton, ''Inquiries into human faculty and its development'' (London, Macmillan, 1883): 17, fn1. In 1904 he clarified his definition of 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."Francis Galton, "Eugenics: Its definition, scope, and aims," ''The American Journal of Sociology'' 10:1 (July 1904). Galton's formulation of eugenics was based on a strong Statistical approach, influenced heavily by Adolphe Quetelet 's "social physics". Unlike Quetelet, however, Galton did not exalt the "average man" but decried him as mediocre. Galton and his statistical heir Karl Pearson developed what was called the Biometrical approach to eugenics, which developed new and complex statistical models (later exported to wholly different fields) to describe the heredity of traits. However, with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel 's hereditary laws, two separate camps of eugenics advocates emerged. One was made up of statisticians, the other of biologists. Statisticians thought the biologists had exceptionally crude mathematical models, while biologists thought the statisticians knew little about biology.See Chapters 2 and 6 in MacKenzie, ''Statistics in Britain''. Eugenics eventually referred to human selective reproduction with an intent to create children with desirable traits, generally through the approach of influencing to Sterilization and even Genocide . Positive eugenic policies have typically taken the form of awards or bonuses for "fit" parents who have another child. Relatively innocuous practices like Marriage Counseling had early links with eugenic ideology. Eugenics differed from what would later be known as Social Darwinism . While both claimed intelligence was hereditary, eugenics asserted that new policies were needed to actively change the status quo towards a more "eugenic" state, while the Social Darwinists argued society itself would naturally "check" the problem of "dysgenics" if no welfare policies were in place (for example, the poor might reproduce more but would have higher mortality rates). Nazi Germany legislation.]] movement before National Socialism, see Paul Weindling, ''Health, race and German politics between national unification and Nazism, 1870-1945'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989). : "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow Germans, that is your money, too."]] They also implemented a number of "positive" eugenics policies, giving awards to " Aryan " women who had large numbers of children and encouraged a service in which "racially pure" single women could deliver illegitimate children. Allegations that such women were also impregnated by SS officers in the '' Lebensborn '' are common, but unproven. Also, "racially valuable" children from occupied countries were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by German people. Many of their concerns for eugenics and racial hygiene were also explicitly present in their systematic killing of millions of "undesirable" people including Jew s, Gypsies , Jehovah's Witnesses and Homosexuals during The Holocaust (much of the killing equipment and methods employed in the death camps were first developed in the euthanasia program). The scope and coercion involved in the German eugenics programs along with a strong use of the rhetoric of eugenics and so-called "racial science" throughout the regime created an indelible cultural association between eugenics and the Third Reich in the postwar years.See Proctor, ''Racial hygiene'', and Kuntz, ed., ''Deadly medicine.'' Eugenics and the United States, 1890s–1945 One of the earliest modern advocates of eugenics (before it was labeled as such) was Alexander Graham Bell . In 1881, Bell investigated the rate of Deaf ness on Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts . From this he concluded that deafness was hereditary in nature and recommended a marriage prohibition against the deaf ("Memoir upon the formation of a deaf variety of the human Race") despite his own marriage to a deaf woman. Like many other early eugenicists, Bell proposed controlling immigration for the purpose of eugenics, and warned that boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race. In 1907 , Indiana became the first of more than thirty states to adopt legislation aimed at compulsory sterilization of certain individuals.Indiana Supreme Court Legal History Lecture Series, "Three Generations of Imbeciles are Enough:" Reflections on 100 Years of Eugenics in Indiana, at {Link without Title} Although the law was overturned by the upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia Law allowing for the compulsory sterilization of patients of state mental institutions in 1927 . Citing Buck V. Bell 274 U.S. 200, 205 (1927) Beginning with , ''In the name of eugenics: Genetics and the uses of human heredity'' (New York: Knopf, 1985), the latter being the standard survey work on the subject. During the 20th century, researchers became interested in the idea that mental illness could run in families and conducted a number of studies to document the heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Their findings were used by the eugenics movement as proof for its cause. State laws were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s to prohibit marriage and force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to the next generation. These laws were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927 and were not abolished until the mid-20th century. By 1945 over 45,000 mentally ill individuals in the United States had been forcibly sterilized. In years to come, the ERO collected a mass of family pedigrees and concluded that those who were unfit came from economically and socially poor backgrounds. Eugenicists such as Davenport, the , one of the few Mendel ians to explicitly criticize eugenics), though most of these focused more on what they considered the crude methodology of eugenicists, and the characterization of almost every human characteristic as being hereditary, rather than the idea of eugenics itself.Hamilton Cravens, ''The triumph of evolution: American scientists and the heredity-environment controversy, 1900-1941'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978): 179. Some states sterilized "imbeciles" for much of the 20th century. The 2003 ), as well as Black's ''War Against the Weak'' (New York: Four Wars Eight Windows, 2003). Stefan Kühl's work, ''The Nazi connection: Eugenics, American racism, and German National Socialism'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), is considered the standard scholarly work on the subject. chart from '' The Kallikak Family '' meant to show how one illicit tryst could lead to an entire generation of imbeciles.]] The idea of "genius" and "talent" is also considered by William Graham Sumner, a founder of the American Sociological Society (now called the American Sociological Association). He maintained that if the government did not meddle with the social policy of ''laissez-faire'', a class of genius would rise to the top of the system of social stratification, followed by a class of talent. Most of the rest of society would fit into the class of mediocrity. Those who were considered to be defective (mentally retarded, handicapped, etc.) had a negative effect on social progress by draining off necessary resources. They should be left on their own to sink or swim. But those in the class of delinquent (criminals, deviants, etc.) should be eliminated from society ("Folkways", 1907). Eugenics is today often associated with . The most famous example of the influence of eugenics and its emphasis on strict racial segregation on such "anti- Miscegenation " legislation was Virginia's Racial Integrity Act Of 1924 . The U.S. Supreme Court overturned this law in 1967 in Loving V. Virginia , and declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. With the passage of the laws in much of the U.S. and were used to justify many Anti-miscegenation Laws .Paul Lombardo, "Eugenic Laws Against Race-Mixing," essay in the Eugenics Archive, available online at http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay7text.html. Various authors, notably Richard Herrnstein, "Intelligence tests and the Immigration Act of 1924," ''American Psychologist'' 38 (1983): 986-995. This interpretation is not, however, accepted by most historians of eugenics. Some who disagree with the idea of eugenics in general contend that eugenics legislation still had benefits. Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood Of America ) found it a useful tool to urge the legalization of Contraception . In its time eugenics was seen by many as scientific and progressive, the natural application of knowledge about breeding to the arena of human life. Before the death camps of World War II , the idea that eugenics could lead to Genocide was not taken seriously. Canada In Canada, the eugenics movement took place early in the 20th Century, particularly in Alberta , and was quite popular. The Sexual Sterilization Act Of Alberta was enacted in 1928, focusing the movement on the sterilization of Mentally Deficient individuals, as determined by the Alberta Eugenics Board . The campaign to enforce this action was backed by groups such as the United Farm Women's Group, including key member Emily Murphy . Individuals were assessed using IQ Tests like the Stanford-Binet. This posed a problem to new Immigrants arriving in Canada, as many had not mastered the English language, and often their scores denoted them as having impaired intellectual functioning. As a result, many of those sterilized under the Sexual Sterilization Act were immigrants who were unfairly categorized. The popularity of the eugenics movement peaked during the Depression . Individuals sought an explanation for the financial problems of the nation, and the notion of defective breeding became a Scapegoat ; citizens blamed individuals considered to be subhuman. The end of the Canadian eugenics movement was brought about when the Sexual Sterilization Act was repealed in 1972. Australia The policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents emerged from an opinion based on Eugenics theory in late at the time held that mankind could be divided into a civilisational hierarchy. This white supremacist notion supposed that Northern Europe ans were superior in civilisation and that Aborigines were inferior. According to this view, the increasing numbers of mixed-descent children in Australia, labelled as 'half-castes' (or alternatively 'crossbreeds', 'quadroons' and 'octoroons'), were widely seen to be a threat to Racial Purity . In the first half of the twentieth century, this led to policies and legislation that resulted in the removal of children from their parents. Aborigines Act of 1905 The stated aim was to Culturally Assimilate Mixed-descent people into contemporary Australian society. In all states and territories legislation was passed in the early years of the twentieth century which gave Aboriginal protectors guardianship rights over Aborigines up to the age of sixteen or twenty-one. Policemen or other agents of the state (such as Aboriginal Protection Officers), were given the power to locate and transfer babies and children of mixed descent, from their mothers or families or communities into institutions. In these Australian states and territories, half-caste institutions (both government or Missionary ) were established in the early decades of the twentieth-century for the reception of these separated children. Stolen Generation by Tim Richardson Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission - Bringing them Home - The Report The 2002 movie ''Rabbit-Proof Fence'' portrays this system and the harrowing consequences of attempting to overcome it. In 1915 A.O. Neville was appointed the second Western Australia State '' Chief Protector Of Aborigines ''. During the next quarter-century, he presided over the now notorious 'Assimilation' policy of removing mixed-race Aboriginal children from their parents. This policy in turn created the Stolen Generations and set in motion a grieving process that through the now widely accepted concept of trans-generational grief, would affect many generations to come. In 1936 Neville became the ''Commissioner for Native Affairs'', a post he held until his retirement in 1940 . Neville believed that biological absorption was the key to 'uplifting the Native race.' Speaking before the Moseley Royal Commission , which investigated the administration of Aboriginals in 1934, he defended the policies of Forced Settlement , removing children from parents, surveillance, discipline and punishment, arguing that "they have to be protected against themselves whether they like it or not. They cannot remain as they are. The sore spot requires the application of the surgeon's knife for the good of the patient, and probably against the patients will." In his twilight years Neville continued to actively promote his policy. Towards the end of his career, Neville published ''Australia's Coloured Minority'', a text outlining his plan for the biological absorption of aboriginal people into white Australia. It is a classic example of the eugenics policies popular at the time in the Western world. 2 3 Sweden From just prior to World War II until 1975, Sweden forcibly sterilized more than 62,000 people. Sweden's large-scale eugenics program targeted ethnic or racial minorities, and the mentally ill. As was the case in other programs, ethnicity and race were believed to be connected to mental and physical health. While many Swedes disliked the program, politicians generally supported it; the ruling left supported it more as a means of promoting social health, while amongst the right it was more about racial protectionism. (Not until 1999 did the Swedish government begin paying compensation to the victims and their families.) Britain In Britain, eugenics never received significant state funding. Furthermore, its emphasis was more upon class, rather than race http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/shis/1999/00000024/00000002/art00002?crawler=true. Indeed, Galton expressed these views during a lecture in 1901 in which he placed the British society into groups. These groupings are shown in the figure and indicate the proportion of society falling into each group and their perceived genetic worth. Galton suggested that negative eugenics (i.e. an attempt to prevent them from bearing offspring) should be applied only to those in the lowest social group (the "Undesirables"), while positive eugenics applied to the higher classes. However, he appreciated the worth of the higher working classes to society and industry. Sterilisation programmes were never legalised, although some were carried out in private upon the mentally ill by clinicians who were in favour of a more widespread eugenics plan http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/shis/1999/00000024/00000002/art00002?crawler=true. (Sterilisation had, in fact, been carried out to prevent masturbation in mentally ill patients since the 1820s, long before the eugenics movement.) Indeed, those in support of eugenics shifted their lobbying of Parliament from enforced to voluntary sterilization, in the hope of achieving more legal recognition http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/shis/1999/00000024/00000002/art00002?crawler=true. The popularity of eugenics in Britain was reflected by the fact that only two universities established courses in this field ( University College London and Liverpool University ), but the position of a professorship in eugenics was never created at either. The Galton Institute , affiliated to UCL, was headed by Galton's protégé, Karl Pearson . Other countries Almost all non-Catholic Western nations adopted some eugenic legislations. In July 1933 s, and these lasted into the 1970s. Many First Nations (native Canadians) were targeted, as well as immigrants from Eastern Europe, as the program identified racial and ethnic minorities to be genetically inferior. Besides the large-scale program in the United States , other nations included Australia , Norway , France , Finland , Denmark , Estonia , Iceland , and Switzerland with programs to sterilize people the government declared to be mentally deficient. Singapore practiced a limited form of eugenics that involved encouraging marriage between University graduates and the rest through segregation in matchmaking agencies, in the hope that the former would produce better children.There are a number of works discussing eugenics in various countries around the world. For the history of eugenics in Scandinavia, see Gunnar Broberg and Nils Roll-Hansen, eds., ''Eugenics And the Welfare State: Sterilization Policy in Demark, Sweden, Norway, and Findland'' (Michigan State University Press, 2005). Another international approach is Mark B. Adams, ed., ''The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Marginalization after World War II , eugenics became increasingly unpopular within academic science. Many organizations and journals that had their origins in the eugenics movement began to distance themselves from the philosophy, such as when ''Eugenics Quarterly'' became ''Social Biology'' in 1969.]] After the experience of Nazi Germany , many ideas about "racial hygiene" and "unfit" members of society were publicly renounced by politicians and members of the scientific community. The Nuremberg Trials against former Nazi leaders revealed to the world many of the regime's genocidal practices and resulted in formalized policies of medical ethics and the 1950 UNESCO statement on race. Many scientific societies released their own similar "race statements" over the years, and the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights , developed in response to abuses during the Second World War, was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and affirmed, "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family."4 In continuation, the 1978 UNESCO declaration on race and racial prejudice states that the fundamental equality of all human beings is the ideal toward which ethics and science should converge.5 In reaction to Nazi abuses, eugenics became almost universally reviled in many of the nations where it had once been popular (however, some eugenics programs, including sterilization, continued quietly for decades). Many pre-war eugenicists engaged in what they later labeled "crypto-eugenics", purposefully taking their eugenic beliefs "underground" and becoming respected anthropologists, biologists and geneticists in the postwar world (including Robert Yerkes in the U.S. and Otmar Von Verschuer in Germany). Californian eugenicist Paul Popenoe founded Marriage Counseling during the 1950s, a career change which grew from his eugenic interests in promoting "healthy marriages" between "fit" couples.A discussion of the general changes in views towards genetics and race after World War II is: Elazar Barkan, ''The retreat of scientific racism: changing concepts of race in Britain and the United States between the world wars'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992). The American Life League , an opponent of abortion, charges that eugenics was merely "re-packaged" after the war, and promoted anew in the guise of the population-control and environmentalism movements. They claim, for example, that Planned Parenthood was funded and cultivated by the Eugenics Society for these reasons. Julian Huxley , the first Director-General of UNESCO and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund was also a Eugenics Society president and a strong supporter of eugenics American Bioethics Advisory Commission, "Eugenics," ABAC website {Link without Title} ven though it is quite true that any radical eugenic policy will be for many years politically and psychologically impossible, it will be important for UNESCO to see that the eugenic problem is examined with the greatest care, and that the public mind is informed of the issues at stake so that much that now is unthinkable may at least become thinkable. --Julian Huxley''UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy'' (Washington D.C. 1947), cited in Liagin, Excessive Force: Power Politics and Population Control, at 85 (Washington, D.C.: Information Project for Africa 1996) High school and college textbooks from the 1920s through the '40s often had chapters touting the scientific progress to be had from applying eugenic principles to the population. Many early scientific journals devoted to heredity in general were run by eugenicists and featured eugenics articles alongside studies of heredity in nonhuman organisms. After eugenics fell out of scientific favor, most references to eugenics were removed from textbooks and subsequent editions of relevant journals. Even the names of some journals changed to reflect new attitudes. For example, ''Eugenics Quarterly'' became ''Social Biology'' in 1969 (the journal still exists today, though it looks little like its predecessor). Notable members of the American Eugenics Society (1922–94) during the second half of the 20th century included Joseph Fletcher , originator of Situational Ethics ; Dr. Clarence Gamble of the Procter & Gamble fortune; and Garrett Hardin , a Population Control advocate and author of '' The Tragedy Of The Commons ''. In the United States, the eugenics movement had largely lost most popular and political support by the end of the 1930s while forced sterilizations mostly ended in the 1960s with the last performed in 1981.See Broberg and Nil-Hansen, ed., ''Eugenics And the Welfare State'' and Alexandra Stern, ''Eugenic nation: faults and frontiers of better breeding in modern America'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005) Many US states continued to prohibit biracial marriages with "anti-miscegnation laws" such as Virginia's of 1924, which was designed to limit the immigration of "dysgenic" Italians, and eastern European Jews, was repealed and replaced by the Immigration And Nationality Act in 1965 http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay_9_fs.html. However, some prominent academics continued to support eugenics after the war. In 1963 the Ciba Foundation convened a conference in London under the title “Man and His Future,” at which three distinguished biologists and Nobel laureates ( Hermann Muller , Joshua Lederberg , and Francis Crick ) all spoke strongly in favor of eugenics.John Glad: "Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century", Hermitage Publishers A few nations, notably, Canada and Sweden , maintained large-scale eugenics programs, including forced sterilization of mentally handicapped individuals, as well as other practices, until the 1970s. MODERN EUGENICS, GENETIC ENGINEERING, AND ETHICAL RE-EVALUATION Beginning in the 1980s, the history and concept of eugenics were widely discussed as knowledge about Genetics advanced significantly. Endeavors such as the Human Genome Project made the effective modification of the human species seem possible again (as did Darwin's initial theory of evolution in the 1860s, along with the rediscovery of Mendel's Laws in the early 20th century). The difference at the beginning of the 21st century was the guarded attitude towards eugenics, which had become a watchword to be feared rather than embraced. Suggestions and ideas A few scientific researchers such as psychologist " (1980–99) created by Robert Klark Graham , from which nearly 230 children were conceived (the best known donor was Nobel Prize winner William Shockley ). In the U.S. and Europe, though, these attempts have frequently been criticized as in the same spirit of classist and racist forms of eugenics of the 1930s. Because of its association with compulsory sterilization and the racial ideals of the Nazi Party, the word ''eugenics'' is rarely used by the advocates of such programs. Eugenicists have argued that immigration from countries with low National IQ is undesirable. According to Raymond Cattell "when a country is opening its doors to immigration from diverse countries, it is like a farmer who buys his seeds from different sources by the sack, with sacks of different average quality of contents."Cattell, R. B. (1987). Beyondism: Religion from science. New York: Praeger, p. 187 China Only a few governments in the world have any law resembling eugenic programs today, the most notable being ) Cyprus A similar screening policy (including prenatal screening and abortion) intended to reduce the incidence of Thalassemia exists on both sides of the island of Cyprus . Since the program's implementation in the 1970s, it has reduced the ratio of children born with the hereditary blood disease from 1 out of every 158 births to almost zero. In the government controlled areas, tests for the gene are compulsory for both partners, prior to marriage. United States Several states require a blood test prior to marriage.http://www.coolnurse.com/marriage_laws2.htm While these tests are typically restricted to the detection of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Syphilis (which was the most common STD at the time these laws were enacted), some partners will voluntarily test for other diseases and genetic incompatibilities. Harris polls in 1986 and 1992 recorded majority public support for limited forms of germ-line intervention, especially to prevent "children inheriting usually fatal genetic disease".http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/0300126.html In 1971, lobbying by the US organisation The International Association For Voluntary Sterilization (AVS), led politicians and officials at the Office for Equal Opportunity to pay for voluntary sterilization of low income Americans for birth-control purposes. AVS also focused on the International community, and its lobbying led to a US foreign policy and funding from the U.S. Agency For International Development to encourage Third World / Developing World countries to utilise abortion and sterilization in order to control their population growth. For further information see EngenderHealth . Dor Yeshorim See Also: Dor Yeshorim Dor Yeshorim, a program which seeks to reduce the incidence of , at the expense of the state, the general public is advised to carry out genetic tests to diagnose these diseases before the birth of a baby. If an unborn baby is diagnosed with one of these diseases among which Tay-Sachs is the most commonly known, the pregnancy may be terminated, subject to consent. Most other Ashkenazi Jewish communities also run screening programs because of the higher incidence of genetic diseases. In some Jewish communities, the ancient custom of matchmaking (shidduch) is still practiced, and in order to attempt to prevent the tragedy of infant death which always results from being Homozygous for Tay-Sachs, associations such as the strongly observant Dor Yeshorim (which was founded by a rabbi who lost four children to Tay-Sachs in order to prevent others suffering the same tragedy) test young couples to check whether they carry a risk of passing on fatal conditions. If both the young man and woman are Tay-Sachs carriers, it is common for the match to be broken off. Judaism, like numerous other religions, discourages abortion unless there is a risk to the mother, in which case her needs take precedence. The effort is not aimed at eradicating the hereditary traits, but rather at the occurrence of homozygosity. The actual impact of this program on Allele frequencies is unknown, but little impact would be expected because the program does not impose genetic selection. Instead, it encourages Disassortative Mating . Ethical re-assessment In modern bioethics literature, the history of eugenics presents many moral and ethical questions. Commentators have suggested the new "eugenics" will come from reproductive technologies that will allow parents to create so-called " Designer Babies " (what the biologist Lee M. Silver prominently called " Reprogenetics "). It has been argued that this "non-coercive" form of biological "improvement" will be predominantly motivated by individual competitiveness and the desire to create "the best opportunities" for children, rather than an urge to improve the species as a whole, which characterized the early 20th-century forms of eugenics. Because of this non-coercive nature, lack of involvement by the state and a difference in goals, some commentators have questioned whether such activities are eugenics or something else altogether. But critics note that Francis Galton , did not advocate for coercion when he defined the principles of eugenics. In other words, eugenics does not mean coercion. It is, according to Galton who originated the term, the proper label for bioengineering of "better" human beings. Daniel Kevles argues that eugenics and the conservation of natural resources are similar propositions. Both can be practiced foolishly so as to abuse individual rights, but both can be practiced wisely. Some disability activists argue that, although their impairments may cause them pain or discomfort, what really disables them as members of society is a sociocultural system that does not recognize their right to genuinely equal treatment. They express skepticism that any form of eugenics could be to the benefit of the disabled considering their treatment by historical eugenic campaigns. James D. Watson , the first director of the Human Genome Project , initiated the Ethical, Legal And Social Implications Program (ELSI) which has funded a number of studies into the implications of human genetic engineering (along with a prominent website on the history of eugenics), because: :In putting ethics so soon into the genome agenda, I was responding to my own personal fear that all too soon critics of the Genome Project would point out that I was a representative of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory that once housed the controversial Eugenics Record Office . My not forming a genome ethics program quickly might be falsely used as evidence that I was a closet eugenicist, having as my real long-term purpose the unambiguous identification of genes that lead to social and occupational stratification as well as genes justifying racial discrimination. James D. Watson , ''A passion for DNA: Genes, genomes, and society'' (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2000): 202. Distinguished geneticists including Nobel Prize-winners . Which ideas should be described as "eugenic" are still controversial in both public and scholarly spheres. Some observers such as Philip Kitcher have described the use of genetic screening by parents as making possible a form of "voluntary" eugenics. Philip Kitcher , ''The Lives to Come'' (Penguin, 1997). Review available online at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/geneticsandsociety/hg16f009.html. Some modern Subculture s advocate different forms of eugenics assisted by Human Cloning and Human Genetic Engineering , sometimes even as part of a New Religious Movement (see Raëlism , Cosmotheism , or Prometheism ). These groups also talk of "neo-eugenics". "conscious evolution", or "genetic freedom". Behavioral traits often identified as potential targets for modification through Human Genetic Engineering include intelligence, depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, sexual behavior (and orientation) and criminality. CRITICISM Diseases vs. traits While the science of Genetics has increasingly provided means by which certain characteristics and conditions can be identified and understood, given the complexity of human genetics, culture, and psychology there is at this point no agreed objective means of determining which traits might be ultimately desirable or undesirable. Eugenic manipulations that reduce the propensity for criminality and violence, for example, might result in the population being enslaved by an outside aggressor it can no longer defend itself against. On the other hand, Genetic Diseases like Hemochromatosis can increase susceptibility to illness, cause physical deformities, and other dysfunctions. Eugenic measures against many of these diseases are already being undertaken in societies around the world, while measures against traits that affect more subtle, poorly understood traits, such as criminality, are relegated to the realm of speculation and science fiction. The effects of diseases are essentially wholly negative, and societies everywhere seek to reduce their impact by various means, some of which are eugenic in all but name. The other traits that are discussed have positive as well as negative effects and are not generally targeted at present anywhere. Slippery slope A common criticism of eugenics is that it inevitably leads to measures that are unethical (Lynn 2001). A hypothetical scenario posits that if one racial Minority group is on average less intelligent than the racial majority group, then it is more likely that the racial minority group will be submitted to a eugenics program before the least intelligent members of the population as a whole. For example, Nazi Germany's eugenic program within the German population resulted in protests and unrest, while the persecution of the Jews was met with silence. H. L. Kaye wrote of "the obvious truth that eugenics has been discredited by Hitler's crimes," (Kaye 1989). R. L. Hayman argued "the eugenics movement is an anachronism, its political implications exposed by the Holocaust," (Hayman 1990). Steven Pinker has stated that it is "a conventional wisdom among left-leaning academics that genes imply genocide." He has responded to this "conventional wisdom" by comparing the history of Marxism , which had the opposite position on genes to that of Nazism: But the 20th century suffered "two" ideologies that led to genocides. The other one, Marxism, had no use for race, didn't believe in genes and denied that human nature was a meaningful concept. Clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous. It's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means (eugenics or social engineering) and the belief that humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones.6 Richard Lynn broadens his criticism of eugenics, by arguing that any social philosophy is capable of ethical misuse. Though Christian principles have aided in the abolition of slavery and the establishment of welfare programs, he notes that the Christian church has also burned many dissidents at the stake and allowed for the killing of large numbers of innocent people by Crusaders . Lynn argues the appropriate response is to condemn these killings, but believes Christianity does not "inevitably {Link without Title} to the extermination of those who do not accept its doctrines," (Lynn 2001). Genetic diversity Eugenic policies could also lead to loss of Genetic Diversity , in which case a culturally accepted improvement of the gene pool would very likely, as evidenced in numerous instances in isolated island populations (e.g. the Dodo ,raphus cucullatus, of Mauritius) result in extinction due to increased vulnerability to disease, reduced ability to adapt to environmental change and other factors both known and unknown. A long-term eugenics plan might lead to a scenario similar to this because the elimination of traits deemed undesirable would reduce genetic diversity by definition. (Galton 2001, 48). The possible elimination of the Autism Genotype is a significant political issue in the Autism Rights Movement , which claims autism is a form of Neurodiversity . Many advocates of Down Syndrome rights also consider Down Syndrome (Trisomy-21) a form of neurodiversity. However, in any one generation any realistic program will make only minor changes in the gene pool. This will give plenty of time to reverse direction if unintended consequences emerge. Desirable genes are unlikely to be eliminated from the gene pool by a feasible short-term eugenics programs. Proponents of eugenics argue that any appreciable reduction in diversity is so far in the future that little concern is needed for now.Edward M. Miller: "Eugenics: Economics for the Long Run", 1997 Heterozygous recessive traits In some instances efforts to eradicate certain single-gene mutations would be nearly impossible. In the event the condition in question was a Heterozygous Recessive Trait , the problem is that by eliminating the visible unwanted trait, there are still as many genes for the condition left in the gene pool as were eliminated according to the Hardy-Weinberg Principle , which states that a population's genetics are defined as pp+2pq+qq at equilibrium. With Genetic Testing it may be possible to detect all of the heterozygous recessive traits, but only at great cost with the current technology. Under normal circumstances it is only possible to eliminate a dominant allele from the gene pool. Recessive traits can be severely reduced, but never eliminated unless the complete genetic makeup of all members of the pool was known, as aforementioned. As only very few undesirable traits, such as Huntington's Disease , are dominant, the practical value for "eliminating" traits is quite low. However, there are already examples of successful eugenic programs aimed to eliminate recessive traits. The elevated incidence of genetically transmitted diseases suffered by a highly inbred Jewish population ( Tay-Sachs , Cystic Fibrosis , Canavan's disease and Goucher's disease), has been largely eliminated in current populations by the application of genetic screening.http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/18624/The_Book_Shelf.html COUNTERARGUMENTS Reductio ad Hitlerum One website on logic has used the statement "Eugenics must be wrong because it was associated with the Nazis" as a typical example of the " Association Fallacy " known as a Reductio Ad Hitlerum .7 The alleged relation between eugenics and the Jewish writes that The Holocaust was "a vast dysgenic program to rid Europe of highly intelligent challengers to the existing Christian domination by a numerically and politically minuscule minority". According to Itzkoff the Holocaust was the very antithesis of eugenic practice.Glad, 2008 Dysgenics See Also: Dysgenics Some supporters of eugenics allege that a Dysgenic decline in intelligence is occurring, which may lead to the collapse of civilization, and justify eugenic programs on that basis. Potential Benefits Small differences in average IQ at the group level might theoretically have large effects on social outcomes. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray altered the mean IQ (100) of the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's population sample by randomly deleting individuals below an IQ of 103 until the population mean reached 103. This calculation was conducted twice and averaged together to avoid error from the random selection. This test showed that the new group with an average IQ of 103 had a poverty rate 25% lower than a group with an average IQ of 100. Similar substantial correlations in high school drop-out rates, crime rates, and other outcomes were measured. Indeed, many studies suggest that IQ correlates with various socioeconomic factors. However, to what extent IQ is a cause of these socioeconomic factors, as opposed to a consequence of them, is disputed. Studies have suggested, for example, that education increases an individual's IQ -- although other studies have shown that education has has little to no effect. EUGENICS IN POPULAR CULTURE Eugenics is a recurrent theme in Science Fiction , often with both Dystopian and Utopian elements. The two giant contributions in this field are the novel '' Brave New World '' (1932) by Aldous Huxley , which describes a society where control of human biology by the state results in permanent social stratification. The Brave New World theme also plays a role in the 1997 film '' Gattaca '', whose plot turns around Reprogenetics , Genetic Testing , and the social consequences of Liberal Eugenics . Boris Vian (under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan) takes a more light-hearted approach in his novel ''Et on tuera tous les affreux'' ("And we'll kill all the ugly ones"). Other novels touching upon the subject include '' The Gate To Women's Country '' by Sheri S. Tepper and '' That Hideous Strength '' by C.S. Lewis . The Eugenics Wars are a significant part of the background story of the Star Trek universe (episodes " Space Seed ", " Borderland ", " Cold Station 12 ", " The Augments " and the film '' The Wrath Of Khan ''). Eugenics also plays a significant role in '' The Neanderthal Parallax '' trilogy where eugenics-practicing Neanderthals from a near-utopian parallel world create a gateway to earth. '' Cowl '' by Neal Asher describes the collapse of western civilization due to Dysgenics . Also Eugenics is the name for the medical company in '' La Foire Aux Immortels '' book by Enki Bilal and on the '' Immortel (Ad Vitam) '' movie by the same author. In Frank Herbert's '' Dune '' series of novels, selective breeding programs form a significant theme. Early in the series, the Bene Gesserit religious order manipulates breeding patterns over many generations in order to create the Kwisatz Haderach . In '' God Emperor Of Dune '', the emperor Leto II again manipulates human breeding in order to achieve his own ends. The Bene Tleilaxu also employed genetic engineering to create human beings with specific genetic attributes. The Dune series ended with causal determinism playing a large role in the development of behavior, but the eugenics theme remained a crucial part of the story. There tends to be a eugenic undercurrent in the Science Fiction concept of the Supersoldier . Several depictions of these supersoldiers usually have them bred for combat or genetically selected for attributes that are beneficial to modern or future combat. In Orson Scott Card 's novel '' Ender's Game '', Ender is only allowed to be conceived because of a special government exception due to his parent's high intelligence and the extraordinary performance of his siblings. In '' Ender's Shadow '', Bean is a Test-tube Baby and the result of a failed eugenics experiment aimed at creating child geniuses. In the novels ''Methuselah's Children'' and '' Time Enough For Love '' by Robert A. Heinlein , a large trust fund is created to give financial encouragement to marriage among people (the Howard Families ) whose parents and grandparents were long lived. The result is a subset of Earth's population who has significantly above-average life spans. Members of this group appear in many of the works by the same author. In Eoin Colfer 's book '' The Supernaturalist '', Ditto is a Bartoli Baby, which is the name for a failed experiment of the famed Dr. Bartoli. Bartoli tried to create a superior race of humans, but they ended in Arrested Development , with mutations including Extra Sensory Perception and healing hands. In Gene Roddenberry 's science-fiction television series '' Andromeda '', the entire Nietzschean race is founded on the principals of selective breeding. In Larry Niven 's '' Ringworld '' series, the character Teela Brown is a result of several generations of winners of the "Birthright Lottery", a system which attempts to encourage lucky people to breed, treating good luck as a genetic trait. In season 2 of '' Dark Angel '', the main 'bad guy' Ames White is a member of a cult known as the ''Conclave'' which has infiltrated various levels of society to breed super-humans. They are trying to exterminate all the Transgenics, including the main character Max Guevara, whom they view as being genetically unclean for having some animal DNA spliced with human. In the movie '' Immortel (Ad Vitam) '', Director/Writer Enki Bilal titled the name of the evil corrupt organization specializing in genetic manipulation, and some very disturbing genetic "enhancement" eugenics. Eugenics has come to be a powerful organization and uses people and mutants of "lesser" genetic stock as guinea pigs. The movie is based on ''the Nikopol trilogy'' in Heavy Metal comic books. In the video game a fictional character called Pastor Richards, who is a caricature of an extreme and insane Televangelist , is featured as a guest on a discussion radio show about morality. On this show he describes shooting people who do not agree with him and who are not "morally correct", the show's host describes this as "amateur eugenics". In the 2006 Mike Judge film, '' Idiocracy '' a fictional character, pvt. Joe Bauers, aka Not Sure (played by Luke Wilson ), awakens from a cryogenic stasis in the year 2505 into a world devastated by dysgenic degeneration. Bowers, who was chosen for his averageness, is discovered to be the smartest human alive and eventually becomes the president of America. The manga series '' Battle Angel Alita '', its sequel '' BAA Last Order '', or '' Gunnm '' and '' Gunnm LO '' as it is known in Japan by Yukito Kishiro, contains multiple references to and themes of eugenics, the most obvious of which is the sky city Tiphares/Salem (depending on the translation). Dr. Desty Nova, in the first series in Volume 9 reveals the eugenical nature of the city to Alita/Gally/Yoko and it is further explored and explained in the sequel series. In the French police drama '' Crimson Rivers '' inspectors Pierre Niemans (played by Jean Reno ) and his coleague Max Kerkerian ( Vincent Cassel ) attempt to solve series of murders triggered by eugenics experiment that was going on for years in university town of Guernon. In the '' Cosmic Era '' universe of the Gundam series, war is fought between the normal human beings without genetical enhancements, also known as the Naturals, and the Coordinators, who are genetically enhanced. It explores the pros and cons as well as possible repercussions from Eugenics See also Genetic Engineering In Fiction . SEE ALSO
NOTES REFERENCES
;Histories of eugenics (academic accounts)
;Histories of hereditarian thought
;Criticisms of eugenics, historical and modern
DOCUMENTARY FILM
EXTERNAL LINKS Pro-eugenics websites
Anti-eugenics and historical websites
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