Eugenics

Sir Francis Galton

The origin of eugenics is most frequently traced to Sir Francis Galton, a statistician, biologist, geographer, and sociologist who was the first cousin of Charles Darwin, the founder of modern evolution. Galton made numerous contributions to the field of science, including an understanding that intellectual traits were distributed in a manner similar to that of physical traits and an understanding of the heritability of behavioral and intellectual traits. In addition, he created a single numerical representation to measure the correlation between variables.

Through his work, Galton found that human behavioral traits could be passed down from parents to their offspring. Because of this, he believed that humans had the ability to improve themselves by gaining a more thorough understanding of the laws of heredity. Galton hoped that this understanding would help with the identification of select individuals who exhibited desirable traits such as high intelligence or strong moral character. Those identified as having ideal genes could then be encouraged to marry at a young age and have large families.

Galton was greatly concerned at the rate of reproduction of individuals he believed to be least fit. He believed that individuals identified as having undesirable traits should be discouraged from procreating at all. He recommended public health policies such as segregation, sterilization, and other measures designed to prevent individuals from marrying or having children. Galton wrote that the church was performing a great disservice to its societies by preaching the importance of celibacy amongst parishioners—the very churchgoers who presumably had desirable moral fiber and, thus, desirable genes. Galton further criticized social programs that, by providing aid to the sick and to the weak, enabled undesirable genes to persist in a population.

Hoping that societies would be made up of individuals who were stronger, healthier, and more vigorous than societies of his day, Galton promoted eugenic [Page 193]practice. He supported teaching laws of heredity and systematically studied factors that encourage large families. To advance his eugenic philosophy, Galton employed his statistical expertise to communicate his findings to those individuals with the traits he deemed desirable such that they might have large families. Galton hoped that societal pressures would influence individuals to conform to eugenic requirements of marrying and child bearing with religious-like zeal.

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