By: IH
Class: SBI 4U
Teacher: Mr. Watts
Date: 7th May, 2012
What is the MEANING of
Eugenics?
It has been defined by many different people
and in different ways
 Not many people are familiar with the term
 Study of methods to improve the human race
by controlling reproduction
 From Greek meaning “good birth”

Positive Eugenics: the form of encouraging reproduction of
mentally or physically superior individuals
 Negative Eugenics: involved attempts at preventing or
discouraging the reproduction of among 'unfit' individuals

Origination of Eugenics
Eugenics actually existed as long as
Ancient Rome and beyond
 Coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton
who was the cousin of Charles Darwin
 Defined eugenics as “the science of
improvement of the human race germ
plasm through better breeding”
 “artificial selection”

“father of
eugenics”
History
It was born as a scientific curiosity in the
Victorian age (1837-1901)
 1798: an English clergyman and economist
named Thomas Robert Malthus published the
Essay on the Principle of Population
 1904: Galton endowed a research chair in
Eugenics at London University
 1907: the Eugenic Education Society (later
known as the Eugenics Society) founded in
England
Malthus wrote the

Essay on the Principle
of Population which
was the foundation of
eugenics
1910: The Eugenics Record Office(ERO)
was founded in the US
 Charles B. Davenport was the most
influential geneticist in America. Aim to make
young people fall in love intelligently.
Claimed that people had genes in
“feeblemindedness” and they should be
sterilized
 1912: immigration services adopted the Binet
intelligence test(80% fail)
 1912: First International Eugenics Congress
held at London University

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October 1916: Margaret Sanger opened the
first birth control clinic in the US.

“Birth control is thus the entering wedge for the Eugenic
educator...the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the
'fit' is admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization... The
most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the
overfertility of the mentally and physically defective.“
Credited with inventing the phrase “birth
control”. She founded Planned Parenthood
and came up with the American Baby
Code.
1922: the American Eugenics Society was
founded. Founders included Madison Grant,
Henry H. Laughlin, Irving Fisher, Henry
Fairfield Osborn, and Henry Crampton
 Madison Grant introduced the eugenic ideals
to a mass audience in his best selling The
Passing of a Great Race(1916)

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"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."
Nazi Eugenics 1931-1945
Adolf Hitler described his own eugenic
ideas in his book Mein Kampf (1924)
 Hitler was determined to establish his
master race
 Hitler was a fan of Eugenics leader,
Madison Grant
 Hitler quoted American eugenic ideology
and openly displayed a thorough
knowledge of American eugenics

Nazi Eugenics (1931-1945)
"There is today one state, in which at
least weak beginnings toward a better
conception [of immigration] are
noticeable. Of course, it is not our model
German Republic, but the United
States.“
 Hitler had killed millions of people,
including 1/3 of the Jews in the world

Eugenics (1945-Present)
Most people have never heard of it but for
the ones who have believed it died with
Hitler, but the eugenics movement
continued to move forward
 Late 1994: the publication of The Bell
Curve revived the word
 The American Eugenics Society, Planned
Parenthood, and abortions still exist today
 Trying to improve the human gene pool
through less aggressive methods

Is Eugenics Right?




At the present time, we are evolving to
become less intelligent in the next generation
From 1875 to now, the average human I.Q has
dropped by 4.4 points, halving those with an
I.Q above 130 and doubling those with an I.Q
of below 70
If every mentally retarded person had been
“dealt with” or sterilized, the number of
retarded people in the next generation would
decrease by 36%
Egalitarianism: genes are at fault for when
people commit crimes
Is Eugenics Wrong?
No scientific evidence of egalitarianism
but mountains of evidence to disprove it
 People considered abortions to be the
second Holocaust
 Violates human rights to “sterilize”
people
 Eugenics is incredibly racist

Opinion


I do support the fact to try to minimize the rate
of birth defects,diseases,etc. in the future so
that people won’t have to suffer through the
complications that arises with the
diseases,etc.
I do not support the fact to sterilize the less
intelligent people because I believe that we all
are equal except for in unique cases,
especially in intelligence but how you use your
intelligence makes the difference(such as
studying,reading,etc.)
Bibliography
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Van Court, Marian (2004). The Case for Eugenics in a Nutshell.
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/caseforeugenics.html
Black, Edwin (2003). The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics.
http://hnn.us/articles/1796.html
American Bioethics Advisory Commission (1999). Eugenics.
http://www.all.org/abac/eugen02.htm
Turano, Jordan (2000). Eugenics, Links to Planned Parenthood Ethical or
Not? http://www.cfpeople.org/SeminarianWritings/Sem036.html
Marks, Johnathan (2009). The Eugenics Page.
http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/eugenics/eugenics.html
Dolan DNA Learning Center (2004). Scientific Origins of Eugenics.
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/list2.pl
Picture Links
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http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/aboutms/index.html
http://www.israelect.com/ChurchOfTrueIsrael/pgr/pgr-toc.html
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1&cid=31&frid
=31&eid=26276
http://edmonton.anglican.org/synod-scene/synod-scene-september-1218-2011/attachment/check_mark/
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/when-asked-to-check-heredo-you-up-a-check-mark-or-do-you-cross-it-out/question713948/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://www.law.columbia.edu/ipimages/In
formation_technology/images/CheckMarkX.jpg
http://howtosurviveschool101.blogspot.ca/2011/02/studying.html
http://www.creationism.org/books/TaylorInMindsMen/TaylorIMMc03.htm
http://news.iskcon.com/node/1632
http://freeimagesarchive.com/img14710.search.htm
http://dawkinswatch.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/thomas-robertmalthus-theory-influenced-charles-darwin/