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Eugenics = “well-born”
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Francis Galton 1860s
Genetic determinism.
Concern about which heritable traits are
spreading thru the human population.
Policies to “rationally” improve biological
quality by controlling reproduction.
Artificial selection is more “humane” than
Social Darwinism because it aims to prevent
births of the “unfit.”
Social Darwinism as human
survival of the fittest
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The human species achieved its evolutionary
success & abilities by the action of natural
selection.
Cruel, rigorous weeding out of the inferior
individuals and races.
Becomes scientific justification for laissezfaire capitalism, opposition to social welfare,
etc. (Herbert Spencer)
Charles Darwin (1871)
Descent of Man
“With savages, the weak in body & mind
are soon eliminated; and those that
survive commonly exhibit a vigorous
state of health. We civilized men, on the
other hand, do our utmost to check the
process of elimination; we build
asylums for the imbecile, the maimed,
and the sick…. Thus the weak members
of societies propagate their kind….”
“…No one who has attended to the
breeding of domestic animals will doubt
that this must be highly injurious to the
race of man. It is surprising how want
of care leads to the degeneration of a
domestic race; but excepting in the
case of man himself, hardly any one is
so ignorant as to allow his worst
animals to breed.”
Suspension of natural
selection in modern societies
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“Coddling” the unfit with charity, social reforms,
health care, poorhouse, etc.
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Is progress guaranteed? Could we revert?
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Late-19th-century degeneration fears
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Cultural decadence
National decline, military failures
Social ills, poverty, unrest, crime
Alcoholism, immorality, laziness
Mental illness & growth of the asylum
Eugenics movement
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1900-1940s (and beyond WWII)
30+ countries had own versions.
Considered politically progressive = use
of rational science to “improve.”
Organizations of social reformers and
scientists (geneticists, doctors).
Science of human heredity at the time.
Pedigrees = supposed scientific
evidence that “defects” are
transmitted by genes.
1912 “Kallikak” family discovered by
eugenicist Henry Goddard (good & bad
heredity)
COSTS of hospitals, asylums, prisons, feebleminded
colonies, poverty, unproductive citizens (State fair
exhibits to promote eugenics awareness)
How to improve the hereditary
make-up of the “race”?
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Voluntary & coercive policies.
Positive eugenics
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Encourage, educate “fitter” people to have
more offspring.
Negative eugenics
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Persuade, pressure, or compel “unfit”
people to have no offspring, not pass on
their “defective” genes. Compulsory
segregation & sterilization.
Positive eugenics:
Better Babies & Fitter Families Contests
Measuring up to eugenic ideals: what
criteria?
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Health
IQ
Education, occupation
Special talents, tastes
Church, politics
Clubs, activities
Negative eugenics: 30 states had
forced sterilization laws by 1930s
60,000 legally sterilized 1907-1970s.
Who? Mental illness and mental
deficiency (feeblemindedness)
Menace of the Moron
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Moral defect leads to
crime, laziness.
Financial burden on
the “normal.”
Disabled as “an evil
stalking beast that
was going to devour
society” (historian
Martin Pernick)
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1918 IQ tests
US Army
For recruits who were
non-English speaking
or illiterate.
Complete the picture.
40% found to be FM.
Actual Test Questions, Army Alpha
SAMPLE People hear with their
eyes\ears\nose\mouth
1. Pinochle is played with
rackets\cards\pins\dice
2. Habeus corpus is a term used in
medicine\law\pedagogy
3. Bud Fisher is a famous
actor\author\athlete\comic
4. Velvet Joe appears in ads for
tooth powder\soap\dry goods\tobacco
5. The number of a Kaffir’s legs is . . . 2\4\6\8
WWI Army Mental Tests: Racial Rankings
1913 Ellis Island mental testing
“moron detectors”
80% immigrants scored feebleminded
Deportation rate increased
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Eugenicists’ expert
testimony on race &
IQ led to the 1924
Immigration
Restriction Act
(quotas).
Disability justifies
discrimination since
1882 (Baynton).
Inventing the feeble mind: social
construction of impairment
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How was “deficiency” determined?
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Often no valid evidence.
Who was diagnosed?
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Socially undesirable traits and social
control.
Behaviors more than medical or physical
conditions.
Alcoholism, sexuality, criminality.
Supreme Court ruling, Buck v. Bell 1927
“Three generations of imbeciles are
enough”
Carrie Buck and her mother
Oliver Wendell Holmes decision 1927
“There can be no doubt that so far as procedure is
concerned the rights of the patient are most carefully
considered. We have seen more than once that the
public welfare may call upon the best citizens for
their lives. It would be strange if it could not call
upon those who already sap the strength of the state
for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by
those concerned, in order to prevent our being
swamped with incompetence. It is better if instead of
waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or
to let them starve for their imbecility, society can
prevent those who are manifestly unfit from
continuing their kind.”
Most extreme: eugenics in
Nazi Germany, 1933-45
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Forced sterilization law for “hereditary
defectives.” (400,000+)
“Lives not worth living,” “useless eaters”
Institutionalization
Killing programs (“euthanasia”)
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200,000+ adults and children with
disabilities.
Final Solution against the Jewish people.
Nazi propaganda: perfect bodies;
Aryan race; wealth & morals.
US Eugenic “Euthanasia”
and Disability
1917 eugenic film The Black Stork:
“There are times when saving a life
is a greater crime than taking one.”
Eugenics Image Archive, hosted by the HGP Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory, formerly Eugenics Record Office:
http://eugenicsarchive.org
US eugenics being
practiced into 1970s
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History of people with disabilities, esp
institutionalized.
Medical model; genetic determinism.
Social construction of impairments using science
and racist/sexist ideologies.
Overlap between disability and other human
differences.
Legacy today in pre-natal genetic testing.
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Subjectivity of “well-born” and “improvement”
Medical fix, eliminate people