EUGENICS

Eugenics



Eugenics

Eugenic is defined by its founder Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin, 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” (Galton, 20001). Eugenics is not a recent idea. Plato believed strongly that humans will be “bred like dogs” (Barlett, 19997, 15) to develop superior qualities. Eugenics is also present in liberal theory. Liberal historian Richard Holfstader stated “In spite of its fundamental conservatism, the eugenics craze had about it the air of 'reform.' Like the reform movements, eugenics accepted the principle of state action toward a common end and spoke in terms of the collective destiny of the group rather than individual success” (Galton, 2000, 167).

There are a number of examples of eugenics programs throughout the modern world. These programs were repealed due largely to Social Darwinism losing popularity as a result of Nazis perverting of its principles during the holocaust, and since then eugenics has become synonymous with genocide; evident from the decline in eugenics programs after WW2. In 1927 the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of laws passed by a number states requiring compulsory sterilization of those with heritable defects in the case of Buck vs. Bell, Justice Oliver Weldell Holmes Jr. said “Three generations of imbeciles are enough” (Barlett, 19997 14). As recently as 1976 a government eugenics policy has been present in Sweden. Over a 40 year period as many as 60,000 Swedes were sterilized in an effort to improve the quality of the population by preventing those with low intelligence and physical defects from producing children (Lynn 34). In Canada, eugenics programs were present in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia in 1928 where roughly 400 sterilizations were carried out, the purpose of which was elimination ...