Eugenics

Eugenics refers to the field of study that aims to improve the human race through genetic means. The word eugenics comes from a Greek word that means “wellborn.” Supporters of eugenics seek to change the human race through negative or positive artificial selection, such as the controlled breeding of people who have certain physical characteristics or mental abilities. Eugenics, based on the science of genetics, studies how genes are structured and passed on through generations, but also involves use of information obtained from other areas of knowledge. Psychology, the study of personality; medicine, as it relates to the genetic factors of certain diseases and conditions; sociology, the study of group interaction; and demography, the statistical study of human populations, are some of the disciplines on which eugenic theories are based.

Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) first noted the rule of heredity in plant breeding experiments as reported in 1865. Six years earlier, Charles Darwin (1809–1882) had published On the Origin of Species (1859). Between them, they laid the foundations for the development of current human genetics. In 1869, Francis Galton (1822–1911) published a book proposing the hereditary improvement of humans using methods of selective breeding and coined the word eugenics. The idea, based on an immature concept of biology (in terms of current knowledge of human genetics), did carry some weight in the early twentieth century in Europe and the United States, until being discredited when the Nazis in Germany adopted it. Mendelism remained generally unrecognized until 1900, when William Bateson (1861–1926) translated Mendel's paper from German into English and published it in an English-language journal. Immediately after this, there were intensive efforts to find applications to humans.

Much before Nazism, a different form of eugenics appeared in the social sciences. The French count, Arthur de Gobineau (1816–1882), published a work on the inequality of human races in 1852. He considered the relevance of blood as of utmost importance, not only at the family level but also at the level of the entire nation. He thought that “blood mixing” (mélange des sangs) could lead to degeneration of the whole nation.

In 1914, Harry Laughlin (1880–1943), at the American Eugenics Record Office, published a report about “cutting off the defective germ plasm in the American population.” He developed the eugenic classification system of five D's: dependent, deficient, defective, delinquent, and degenerate. This time eugenicists focused on physical deformity and disease. Karl Pearson (1857–1936) declared in a 1909 lecture at Galton Laboratory (London) on eugenics, “everyone, being born, has the right to live, but the right to live does not in itself convey the right to reproduce their kind” (1912: 27).