American Eugenics Movement

1909 words 8 pages
Show More
The eugenics movement began in the 20th century by a man named Francis Galton. As the cousin of Charles Darwin, Galton believed that eugenics was a moral philosophy to improve humanity by encouraging the ablest and healthiest people to have more children (Carlson). This Galtonian ideal of eugenics is often thought of as positive eugenics. Eugenics can be defined as the outgrowth of human heredity aimed at "improving" the quality of the human stock (Allen and Bird). At the other end of the spectrum is what can be classified as negative eugenics and is presently in disrepute. Negative eugenics entails selective breeding in which the least able from the population is taken out of the reproduction pool to preserve humanity's best traits. …show more content…

With this new priceless information, eugenicists can screen unwanted diseases as well as undesirable traits in the future generation of children and essentially achieve a perfectly healthy society. Thanks to the Human Genome Project there has been a resurgence in the study of eugenics. With more information becoming rapidly available, eugenicists better understand the concepts as to how certain genes and alleles work. This has led to a new definition of eugenics. Rather than being viewed with disdain and disrepute, eugenics is now often seen as a way to reproduce through the careful planning of parents by using genetics as a way to better society (Allen and Bird).
Currently eugenics is beginning to resurface from underground and is rapidly gaining the media's attention. Eugenics is sees an instructive way for evaluating how genetics can be used. Eugenics once provided social control over the past period of violence and chaos. We, society, are once again adopting a similar belief as to that of our ancestors, where claims about genetic basis' for behaviors are still as controversial as ever. Where the "bottom-line" is quickly becoming society's new motto. As health-care costs climb as quickly as fuel prices, society is beginning to accept a "bottom-line" to the analysis of the cost to benefit ration of human life. If society begins to make decisions solely based on

Related

  • How White People Became White
    1036 words | 5 pages

    a White person. The majority of Mexicans in the United States were therefore recognized by the census, if not the courts, as non-Whites. Although having their whiteness restored did not lessen discrimination, the Mexican government and Mexican Americans fully understood the implications of being officially or legally recognized as a non-White group (Foley). Segregation statues consistently defined all those without African ancestry as “whites.” Chinese and Mexicans in Texas were thus White under….

    Show More
  • Wars, Guns, Votes Democracy in Dangerous Places Book Analysis
    1530 words | 7 pages

    Canada is often referred to as a nation of immigrants, however, for a long period of time these immigrants came from a limited side of the world. Most people who migrated to the Dominion before the turn of the twentieth century left European nations, predominately the British Isles and Western Europe. The pattern of immigration began to shift particularly in the 1890s, as it became more likely for southern and eastern Europeans to make the trip. Additionally, another notable change in the pattern….

    Show More
  • Death with Dignity
    4353 words | 18 pages

    L. Mitchell who partnered with Charles Francis Potter. They were inspired by the first society formed in England. The society’s members were made of several eugenicists. Eugenics and euthanasia were blended together with the Euthanasia Society of America due to the members, but they are different in meaning and purpose. Eugenics concerns are birth control, social planning, preventive medicine, and the study of heredity. Euthanasia is the mercy killing of the terminally ill or life afflicted individual….

    Show More
  • 1960's an Interdisciplinary Approach
    2178 words | 9 pages

    Parks as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”; a time when black Americans were treated as second class citizens and not allowed to use “white” bathrooms or “white” drinking fountains or even sit in places that were designated “for whites only”. Because Mrs. Parks was woman of unchallenged character who was held in high esteem by all who knew her, she drew further attention to the civil rights cause. People rallied around her arrest and the African American community organized a peaceful boycott….

    Show More
  • special education
    11985 words | 48 pages

    CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS OF DISABILITY The contemporary conception of disability proposed in the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) views disability as an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disability is the interaction between individuals with a health condition (e.g. cerebral palsy, Down syndrome or depression) and personal and environmental factors (e.g. negative attitudes, inaccessible transportation, or….

    Show More
  • BCH190
    14809 words | 60 pages

    Quiz # 2 on lectures 3, 4, and including Chapter 2 1. Difference occurs in the sequence of long chain molecules and becomes information in biological organisms. ‘Life’ assembles itself into chains: (A) of RNA (B) all of the answers are correct (C) of DNA (D) of protein (E) none of these answers are correct 2. Which of the following foods is not a significant source of complex carbohydrates? (A) fresh fruit (B) rice (C) pasta (D) oatmeal (E) all of the above are significant….

    Show More
  • Modern History.Hsc.2012
    25805 words | 104 pages

    The nature of industrialisation further changed in the 1930s as a result of the 1935 Wagner Act which permitted workers to form trade unions. By 1939, 22% of American workers belonged to a union; three times the number who had been union members in 1933. This changed the relationship between employer and employee, giving the employee more power to negotiate wages and conditions than had been the case in the 1920s….

    Show More

Popular Essays