- Galton believed that the natural selection mechanism was broken due to philanthropy of the rich [1] - Galton defined eugenics as “artificial selection” - At this early stage, another definition by Galton was “the science of improvement of the human race germ plasm through better breeding” Sir Francis Galton, father of eugenics 

- Eugenics is a term that has been defined by many different people in many different ways - There are actually two different types of eugenics, positive eugenics and negative eugenics - Generally, eugenics is the belief that people with favourable genes are more beneficial to a society - Many people are not familiar with the term “eugenics”

- The concepts of eugenics have actually existed long before the Common Era of Man - Ancient Greek principles stated that if a man was a peasant, his children would also be peasants [4] essay by Thomas Malthus laid the groundwork for modern eugenics - Cousin of Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Galton, first coined the term “eugenics” in 1883

-Charles B. Davenport was one of the most influential geneticists in the beginning of the 20 th century [3] - His initial definition of the aim of eugenics was to make young people fall in love intelligently - He later went on to claim that people had genes in them for “feeblemindedness” - He suggested that people with these genes should be sterilized in order to prevent their reproduction

-Davenport had begun to influence many people by the 1910’s that his ideas on eugenics were correct - The Binet immigration test was adopted in America in 1912: 80% failure rate - A book in 1916 by avid eugenicist Madison Grant called “The Passing of the Great Race”, just one of many eugenics books being written at the time, brilliantly summarized the general idea of eugenics

“A rigid system of selection through the elimination of those who are weak or unfit -- in other words social failures -- would allow solve the whole question in one hundred years, as well as enable us to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals, and insane asylums. The individual himself can be nourished, educated and protected by the community during his lifetime, but the state through sterilization must see to it that his line stops with him, or else future generations will be cursed with an ever increasing load of misguided sentimentalism. This is a practical, merciful, and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types." - Madison Grant

-Concepts of eugenics became increasingly popular as time went on in the United States - Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1921, and abortion became legal Margaret Sanger, coined the term “birth control” and founded Planned Parenthood

-The American Eugenics Foundation was created in 1922 by Henry Laughlin, Madison Grant, and Irving Fisher - They were funded by the some of the wealthiest companies in the world at the time, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Institution - They worked to get sterilization laws passed: some 60,000 Americans were sterilized and the marriages of thousands were banned

- Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” expressed deeply eugenic ideas: the idea of a master race - Adolf Hitler was inspired by the American eugenicists, especially Madison Grant - “There is today one state, in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the United States.” [2]

- Hitler was initially praised by many eugenicists in America for his actions of sterilizing people he deemed “unfit” - Hitler went on to exterminate 1/3 of the world’s Jewish population, along with millions of others that he deemed unfit to live and reproduce - The idea of gas chambers to exterminate was actually present in a 1918 American eugenics book - Eugenics became vilified after the war was over

-Scientists after the war, including Archibald Garrod and George Beadle, changed the meaning of eugenics from negative to positive - Negative eugenics implied sterilizing the unfit, positive eugenics implied encouraging people with good genes to reproduce together Negative eugenics favoured those with blond hair and blue eyes, and this idea was not just Hitler’s: many people worldwide agreed.

-The American Eugenics Society still exists to this day, along with The Population Council – mostly genetic work is done with the ultimate goal of improving the human gene pool through less aggressive methods - Planned Parenthood still exists to this day - Members of the American Eugenics Society funded and participated in the Human Genome Project - Negative eugenics are still prevalent in some parts of the world: i.e. the one baby only law in China If a Chinese woman becomes pregnant again after having a child, the baby is aborted, and the woman is possibly arrested.

- One needs to consider the direction that humans are evolving in - Human intelligence is largely hereditary, and innate intelligence of humans decides the quality of the civilization that we live in - Since 1875, the average human IQ has dropped by 4.4 IQ points, doubling the number of people with an IQ below 70 (legally retarded) [5] - Egalitarianism is an illusion: poverty does not create crime, people commit crimes because of their genes - If every retarded person were sterilized, the next generation would decrease the number of mentally retarded people by 37% until eventually retardation would be gone completely - Rather than wasting money catering to the unfit, money could be put to good uses while the gene pool improves itself due to less unfit people reproducing

-It seriously violates human rights to sterilize people - Some believe that eugenics is actually a pseudoscience with no true evidence to back it up - It is immoral to abort babies, some consider it to be murder - Everyone deserves to be treated equally - Eugenics is incredibly racist and bigoted: there are often biases such as the “master race” being pure white - Some believe egalitarianism to be true: people with so called “bad genes” can be reformed by the institutes of society and overcome them

-I support the concepts of positive and negative eugenics: people with low intelligence should be sterilized in order to build a better future - I do not however support Nazi Eugenics or any form of exterminating races of people

[1] American Bioethics Advisory Commission (1999). Eugenics. Retrieved from [2] Black, Edwin (2003). The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics. Retrieved from [3] Marks, Jonathan (2009). The Eugenics Page. Retrieved from: [4] Turano, Jordan (2000). Eugenics, Links to Planned Parenthood Ethical or Not? Retrieved from: [5] Van Court, Marian (2004).The Case for Eugenics in a Nutshell. Retrieved from:

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