The Beginnings of Eugenics – LN24

This brings us to the first question regarding what led to the beginning of eugenics? First, typically eugenics were thought of as a plausible science. The general perception was that eugenics was concerned with the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations, typically in reference to humans. The term eugenics was also coined in 1883 by British explorer and natural scientist Francis Galton, who, influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, advocated a system that would allow “the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable.” Social Darwinism, the popular theory in the late 19th century that life for humans in society was ruled by “survival of the fittest,” helped advance eugenics into serious scientific study in the early 1900s. By World War I many scientific authorities and political leaders supported eugenics. HOWEVER, it ultimately failed as a science in the 1930s and ’40s, when the assumptions of eugenicists became heavily criticized and the Nazis used eugenics to support the extermination of entire races.
Furthermore, anti-eugenics sentiment began to appear after 1910 and intensified during the 1930s. Most commonly it was based on religious grounds. For example, the 1930 papal encyclical Casti connubii condemned reproductive sterilization, for example. Then in the early 1930s Nazi Germany adopted American measures to identify and selectively reduce the presence of those deemed to be “socially inferior” through involuntary sterilisation. A rhetoric of positive eugenics in the building of a master race pervaded Rassenhygiene (racial hygiene) movements. When Germany extended its practices far beyond sterilization in efforts to eliminate the Jewish and other non-Aryan populations, the United States became increasingly concerned over its own support of eugenics.
THE PRACTICE OF EUGENICS IN AMERICA: FORCED STERILISATIONS
This then brings us to the second question regarding how was eugenics practised in Western civilisation, especially in America? Well, in the late 19th century, Galton—whose cousin was Charles Darwin—hoped to better humankind through the propagation of the British elite. His plan never really took hold in his own country, but in America it was more widely embraced. Eugenics made its first official appearance in American history through marriage laws. In 1896, Connecticut made it illegal for people with epilepsy or who were “feeble-minded” to marry. In 1903, the American Breeder’s Association was created to study eugenics.
John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg’s cereal fame, organized the Race Betterment Foundation in 1911 and established a “pedigree registry.” The foundation hosted national conferences on eugenics in 1914, 1915 and 1928. As the concept of eugenics took hold, prominent citizens, scientists and socialists championed the cause and established the Eugenics Record Office. The office tracked families and their genetic traits, claiming most people considered unfit were immigrants, minorities or poor. The Eugenics Record Office also maintained there was clear evidence that supposed negative family traits were caused by bad genes, not racism, economics or the social views of the time.
Following this, eugenics in America took a now more manifestly dark turn in the early 20th century, led by California. From 1909 to 1979, around 20,000 sterilizations occurred in California state mental institutions under the guise of protecting society from the offspring of people with mental illness. Many sterilizations were forced and performed on minorities. Thirty-three states would eventually allow involuntary sterilization on whomever lawmakers deemed unworthy to procreate.
In 1927, the US Supreme Court then ruled that forced sterilization of the handicapped does not violate the U.S. Constitution. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, “…three generations of imbeciles are enough.” In 1942, the ruling was overturned, but not before thousands of people underwent the procedure.
Furthermore, in the 1930s, the acting governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Menendez Ramos, implemented sterilization programs for Puerto Rican women. Ramos claimed the action was needed to battle rampant poverty and economic strife; however, it may have also been a way to prevent the so-called superior Aryan gene pool from becoming tainted with Latino blood. According to a 1976 Government Accountability Office investigation, between 25 and 50 percent of Native Americans were sterilized between 1970 and 1976. It’s thought some sterilizations happened without consent during other surgical procedures such as an appendectomy.
In some cases, health care for living children was denied unless their mothers agreed to sterilization. But, here’s more on sterilisation in the United States.
HOW WESTERN EUGENICS INSPIRED HITLER
And now onto the final question regarding how did Western eugenics influence Hitler? At this point, it should be apparent to all that Western eugenics predated the conduct from Hitler, and this is no mere coincidence. In fact, Hitleractually  drew much influence from how the British and Americans practised Eugenics! This is to say that as horrific as forced sterilization in America was, nothing compared to Adolf Hitler’s eugenic experiments before and during World War II. BUT Hitler did not come up with the concept of a superior Aryan race all on his own – he referred to American eugenics in his 1934 book, Mein Kampf.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler declared non-Aryan races such as Jews and Romani as inferior. He believed Germans should do everything possible, including genocide, to make sure their gene pool stayed pure. And in 1933, the Nazis created the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which resulted in thousands of forced sterilizations. Then, by 1940, Hitler’s master-race mania took a terrible turn as hundreds of thousands of Germans with mental or physical disabilities were killed by gas or lethal injection. Here’s more on how Hitler was inspired by Western practices of Eugenics.
When you consider the history of a subject matter, it quickly reveals what its intended purpose is, even if society has reframed its meaning and use. For instance, despite the appropriation of the N-word by African Americans, it does not change what the intended meaning of that word is. Similarly, despite the sensationalisation of abortion, sterilisation, or even eugenics, it does not change their diabolical intent and history. And so, perhaps, before we advocate for certain practices as being a fundamental right, we ought to understand whether history corroborates this claim.