Eugenics Industrial Complex

The general concept of eugenics was first introduced in Greek philosophy as early as 368 BCE. Plato and Aristotle both refer to the city and state’s need for healthy citizens to create an elite ruling class and army. In this concept of eugenics, men and women were encouraged to reproduce when they were at their highest physical and mental powers in order to conceive the healthiest and the most intelligent children. This underlying principle of striving for an ideal society through selective breeding is one that has motivated eugenicists throughout history and has facilitated the emergence of the eugenics industrial complex, a flawed and crude interpretation of Gregor Mendel’s laws on heredity to argue that criminality, intelligence, and pauperism were as inherent in families as ...