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By: IH Class: SBI 4U Teacher: Mr. Watts Date: 7 th May, 2012. EUGENICS . 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
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By: IH Class: SBI 4U Teacher: Mr. Watts Date: 7th May, 2012 EUGENICS
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
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) • "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 TheBell 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 • 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 • 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-12-18-2011/attachment/check_mark/ • http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/when-asked-to-check-here-do-you-up-a-check-mark-or-do-you-cross-it-out/question-713948/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://www.law.columbia.edu/ipimages/Information_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-robert-malthus-theory-influenced-charles-darwin/