Eugenics

Eugenics is the applied science of the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices
aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population. It is a
social philosophy which advocates for the improvement of human hereditary traits through the
promotion of higher reproduction of more desired people and traits, and the reduction of
reproduction of less desired people and traits.
History
Throughout history, eugenics remains a controversial concept. As a social movement, eugenics
reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century. At this point in time,
eugenics was practiced around the world and was promoted by governments, and influential
individuals and institutions. Many countries enacted

various eugenics policies and programs,
including: genetic screening, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage
restrictions, segregation (both racial segregation and segregation of the mentally ill from the rest
of the population), compulsory sterilization, forced abortions or forced pregnancies and
genocide. Most of these policies were later regarded as coercive and/or restrictive, and now few
jurisdictions implement policies that are explicitly labeled as eugenic or unequivocally eugenic
in substance.
The way eugenics was practiced in this period involved "interventions", which is a euphemistic
name for the identification and classification of individuals and their families, including the poor,
mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, homosexuals and entire
racial groups such as the Roma and Jews as "degenerate" or "unfit"; the segregation or
institutionalisation of such individuals and groups, their sterilization, euthanasia, and in the
extreme case of Nazi Germany, their mass extermination.
Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities, and received funding
from many sources. Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for
eugenicists with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York. Eugenic
policies were first implemented in the early 1900s in the United States. Later, in the 1920s and
30s, the eugenic policy of sterilizing certain mental patients was I mplemented in a variety of
other countries, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, and Sweden, among others. The scientific
reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rdin used eugenics as
a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany, and when proponents of eugenics among
scientists and thinkers prompted a backlash in the public. Nevertheless, in Sweden the eugenics
program continued until 1975.
In addition to being practiced in a number of countries, eugenics was internationally organized
through the International Federation of Eugenic Organizations. Its scientific aspects were carried
on through research bodies such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human
Heredity, and Eugenics, the Cold Spring Harbour Carnegie Institution for Experimental
Evolution and the Eugenics Record Office. Its political aspects involved successful advocacy for
changes of law to pursue eugenic objectives, for instance sterilization laws. Its moral aspects
included rejection of the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefining morality
purely in terms of genetic fitness. Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure "Nordic race" or
"Aryan" genetic pool and the eventual elimination of less fit races
By the end of World War II, eugenics had been largely abandoned, having become associated
with Nazi-Germany. This country's approach to genetics and eugenics was focused on Eugen
Fischer's concept of phenogenetics and the Nazi twin study methods of Fischer and Otmar
Freiherr von Verschuer. Both the public and some elements of the scientific community 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
are, as per some, definitely not all, perspectives, raising for some people numerous new
questions regarding the ethical status of eugenics, effectively creating a resurgence of interest in
the subject.
Today it is still regarded by some as a brutal movement which inflicted massive human rights
violations on millions of people. Some practices engaged in by people in the name of eugenics
involving violations of privacy, attacks on reputation, violations of the right to life, to found a
family, to freedom from discrimination are all today classified as violations of human rights.
The practice of negative racial aspects of eugenics, after World War II, fell within the definition
of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also proclaims "the prohibition of
eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons.
Meanings and types
The modern field and term were first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1883 drawing on the
recent work of his half-cousin Charles Darwin. He wrote down many of his observations and
conclusions in a book, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development.
The origins of the concept began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance, and the
theories of August Weismann.
The word eugenics derives from the Greek word eu (good or well) and the suffix -gens (born),
and was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883 to replace the word stirpiculture which he had
used previously but which had come to be mocked by people of culture due to its perceived
sexual overtones. Galton defined eugenics as "the study of all agencies under human control
which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".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. To
population geneticists the term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without necessarily
altering allele frequencies; for example, J. B. S. Haldane wrote that "the motor bus, by breaking
up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent".Much debate has taken place in
the past, as it does today, as to what exactly counts as eugenics. Some types of eugenics deal
only with perceived beneficial and/or detrimental genetic traits. These are sometimes called
"pseudo-eugenics" by proponents of strict eugenics.
The term eugenics is often used to refer to movements and social policies 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. Despite its ongoing criticism in the United States,
several regions globally practice different forms of eugenics.
Eugenicists advocate specific policies that (if successful) they believe will 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 purebreds 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.
Eugenics has also been concerned with the elimination of hereditary diseases such as hemophilia
and Huntington's disease. However, there are several problems with labeling certain factors as
genetic defects. In many cases there is no scientific consensus on what a genetic defect is. It is
often argued that this is more a matter of social or individual choice. What appears to be a
genetic defect in one context or environment may not be so in another. This can be the case for
genes with a heterozygote advantage, such as sickle-cell disease or Tay-Sachs disease, which in
their heterozygote form may offer an advantage against, respectively, malaria and tuberculosis.
Although some birth defects are uniformly lethal, disabled persons can succeed in life. Many of
the conditions early eugenicists identified as inheritable (pellagra is one such example) are
currently considered to be at least partially, if not wholly, attributed to environmental conditions.
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
at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged,for example the reproduction of
the intelligent, the healthy, and the successful . Possible approaches include financial and
political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and
cloning. Negative eugenics is aimed at lowering fertility among the genetically
disadvantaged.Negative eugenics aimed to eliminate, through sterilisation or segregation, those
deemed physically, mentally, or morally undesirable This includes abortions, sterilization, and
other methods of family planning. Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive. Abortion
by fit women was illegal in Nazi Germany.
Implementation methods
There are three main ways by which the methods of eugenics can be applied. One is mandatory
eugenics or authoritarian eugenics, in which the government mandates a eugenics program.
Policies and/or legislation are often seen as being coercive and restrictive. Another is
promotional voluntary eugenics, in which eugenics is voluntarily practiced and promoted to the
general population, but not officially mandated. This is a form of non-state enforced eugenics,
using a liberal or democratic approach, which can mostly be seen in the 1900s. The third is
private eugenics, which is practiced voluntarily by individuals and groups, but not promoted to
the general population.
Dysgenics
Research has suggested that in the modern world, the relationship between fertility and
intelligence is such that those with higher intelligence have fewer children, one possible reason
being more unintended pregnancies for those with lower intelligence. Several researchers have
argued that the average genotypic intelligence of the United States and the world are declining
which is a dysgenic effect. This has been masked by the Flynn effect for phenotypic intelligence.
The Flynn effect may have ended in some developed nations, causing some to argue that
phenotypic intelligence will or has started to decline.
Similarly, Richard Lynn has in the book Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern
Populations argued that genetic health (due to modern health care) and genetic conscientiousness
(criminals have more children than non-criminals) are declining in the modern world. This has
caused some, like Lynn, to argue for voluntary eugenics. Lynn and Harvey (2008) suggest that
designer babies may have an important eugenic effect in the future. Initially this may be limited
to wealthy couples, who may possibly travel abroad for the procedure if prohibited in their own
country, and then gradually spread to increasingly larger groups. Alternatively, authoritarian
states may decide to impose measures such as a licensing requirement for having a child, which
would only be given to persons of a certain minimum intelligence. The Chinese one-child policy
is an example of how fertility can be regulated by authoritarian means.
Criticism
Doubts on genetic mutation triggered by inheritance
The first major challenge to conventional eugenics based upon genetic inheritance was made in
1915 by Thomas Hunt Morgan, who demonstrated the event of genetic mutation occurring
outside of inheritance involving the discovery of the hatching of a fruit fly with white eyes from
a family and ancestry of the red-eyed Drosophila melanogaster species of fruit fly. Morgan
claimed that this demonstrated that major genetic changes occurred outside of inheritance and
that the concept of eugenics based upon genetic inheritance was, to some extent, not completely
scientifically accurate.
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. Some diseases such as sickle-cell disease and
cystic fibrosis respectively confer immunity to malaria and resistance to cholera when a single
copy of the recessive allele is contained within the genotype of the individual. Reducing the
instance of sickle-cell disease in Africa where malaria is a common and deadly disease could
indeed have extremely negative net consequences. On the other hand, genetic diseases like
haemochromatosis can increase susceptibility to illness, cause physical deformities, and other
dysfunctions, which provides some incentive for people to re-consider some elements of
eugenics.
Ethics
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 perceived 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 rather than the least intelligent members of the whole
population. In addition eugenics advocates, as humans, wouldn't support a system that could
recognise them as inferior, possibly leading to a bias against people of other ethnicities, religions
or other categorisations than they themselves are of. 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.


Genetic diversity
Eugenic policies could also lead to loss of genetic diversity, in which case a culturally accepted
improvement of the gene pool could 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 species-wide 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).
Proponents of eugenics argue that in any one generation any realistic program should make only
minor changes in a fraction of the gene pool, giving plenty of time to reverse direction if
unintended consequences emerge, reducing the likelihood of the elimination of desirable genes.
Such people also argue that any appreciable reduction in diversity is so far in the future that little
concern is needed for now. The possible reduction of autism rates through selection against the
genetic predisposition to autism 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.
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 still may be many carriers for the genes without, or
with fewer, phenotypic effects due to that gene. With genetic testing it may be possible to detect
all of the heterozygous recessive traits, but quite possibly at great cost with 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, one, from certain perspectives, may argue that
the practicallity of "eliminating" traits is quite low.
There are examples of eugenic acts that managed to lower the prevalence of recessive diseases,
although not influencing the prevalence of heterozygote carriers of those diseases. The elevated
prevalence of certain genetically transmitted diseases among the Ashkenazi Jewish population
(Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, Canavan's disease and Gaucher's disease), has been decreased in
current populations by the application of genetic screening.
Supporters and critics
At its peak of popularity eugenics was supported by a wide variety of prominent people,
including Winston Churchill, Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes, H. G. Wells, Theodore Roosevelt,
George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, John Harvey Kellogg, Linus Paulingand Sidney
Webb. Many members of the American Progressive Movement supported eugenics, enticed by
its scientific trappings and its promise to cure social ills. Its most infamous proponent and
practitioner was, however, Adolf Hitler who praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein
Kampf and emulated Eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been
pioneered in the United States.

The American sociologist Lester Frank Ward and the English writer G. K. Chesterton were early
critics of the philosophy of eugenics. Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics"
and Chesterton's 1917 book Eugenics and Other Evils were harshly critical of the rapidly
growing eugenics movement. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and National Socialist Propaganda
Anthropobiology was used to support stereotyped views of Gypsies, Jews, Blacks, the mentally
ill, and physically handicapped people. Anthropobiology utilized anthropometry: the
measurement and recording of "metrics" (different physical or mental factors) which could then
be used to classify people by race or value. To create reproducible anthropometric results,
Hermann Werner Siemens developed a technique called "polysymptomatic similarity diagnosis
". This was initially associated with twin research, as such measurements would only be of value
if they were understood to be inheritable and independent of the environment.
Stellae of characteristics measured by anthropometry were grouped into distinct stereotypes. For
example, "Jews" had a particular type of nose; "Blacks" had kinky hair; "Gypsies" were always
criminals; etc. However, the work done at the KWI-A used as criteria to identify races, such as:
hair color and shape
skin color
color of lanugo hairs
eye color
freckles
telangiesctasia
cornification in hair follicles
tongue creases
blood group
skulls (shape, capacity)
facial characteristics
shape of the ear
form of the hand
dactyloscopy (handprints, fingerprints)
body type
spine vertebrae types
Human race crossings
Human internal organs:
o shape (heart)
o stomach function
o taste sensations
o anterior pituitary hormone
o menarche and climate
o hardness of soft tissues
These stereotypes were primarily used to create propaganda support for the Lebensborn program;
the sterilization program; the euthanasia program; genocide at concentration camps;
deportations; and medical experimentation done by other programs such as the Waffen-SS (low
pressure experiments, hyper- and hypothermia experiments, etc.). For details, see the Doctors'
Trial, also known as the Nuremberg Medical Trial.
The purpose of the propaganda was to dehumanize those who were considered to be enemies of
the Third Reich. Methods of dehumanization included the use of stereotypes in newspapers
(Julius Streicher cartoons) and films such as Jud S (1940 film). At that time, films that were
very popular internationally, such as "Nosferatu" (directed by F. W. Murnau, starring actor Max
Schreck), depicted dehumanized forms with very wan complexions, long noses and long ears,
and cadaverous body shapes, who drank blood.