Eugenics

Nineteenth-Century Origins of Eugenics

Eugenics began when Sir Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, invented and defined the term eugenics in 1883. Many scientists, philosophers, and socialites, including Galton, Herbert Spencer, Charles Davenport, and John Harvey Kellogg, played pivotal roles in legitimizing eugenics and promoting the concept of protecting the human race from genetic and moral decline. England, the United States, and Germany were among the forerunners in the establishment of eugenics, which eventually expanded to more than 30 countries worldwide. People feared diseases and social problems that were thought to be hereditary, including morally inept behavior, congenital abnormalities, and alcoholism, which propelled the eugenics movement forward. Techniques such as sterilization by vasectomy or tubal ligation, forced imprisonment in asylums, and euthanasia were seen by some as ways to cleanse human society.

Scientific advances by three leading figures in the late 1800s led to the initial concepts that would become the cornerstone of eugenics at the turn of the century. Darwin's controversial book On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, proposed that inheritance was a natural, controlled process. Darwin's theory of natural selection was based on scientific evidence showing that variation of targeted characteristics in animals influenced selection and survival within a population. While Darwin remained dedicated to studying populations of animals, Galton was increasingly interested in applying selection processes to human populations. He believed that cognitive ability could be increased through improving human biological variation and viewed such improvement as an extension of Darwin's theory. At the time, Darwin thought only on the level of observable traits in a population and did not appear to have considered the complexity of genetics as the driving force behind selection. The only scientist to have recognized the intricacies of inheritance, by studying the transmission of characteristics in peas, was Gregor Mendel. His article on experiments with plant hybridization was published just 6 years after Darwin's book; however, it was poorly understood and disregarded. It wasn't until Mendel's work was rediscovered in the early 1900s that its impact was realized.

During the time between 1860 and 1900, Galton promoted the concept of natural selection in humans. At the same time, the two most significant discoveries in epidemiology during the Bacteriological Era were made. First was the transmission of disease by arthropods, generally from an animal source, and second, the transmission of disease from healthy carriers. However, it was the idea that an unsanitary physical environment contributed to disease, a hypothesis presented centuries earlier, that found a new appreciation in Victorian-Era Britain, as well as in other countries around the world. Since [Page 352]the British ruling classes were viewed as superior and free from unsanitary environments, many people accepted the perspective that biological inheritance determined leadership qualities and social status. Herbert Spencer, an Englishman, championed Galton's ideas and introduced Social Darwinism, which suggested that a proper and discriminating society depended on the quality of the individuals within the society. Spencer's book First Principles, published in 1862, attracted a large following. The book drew comparisons between society and biological organisms and implied that the process of selection was entirely natural, even in humans. Spencer relied heavily on the concept of evolution and considered competition as the fundamental element to evolutionary progress.

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