The concept of moving selective breeding from the animal world to the
human world began to take root in the 1830's. Could this natural
extension of Genetics and Darwinism be resurfacing?
Roots
In 1883, Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, coined the word
"Eugenics", which means "good in birth". In his
book Natural Inheritance (1889), he theorized that society would be
better without the presence of inferior people. In fact, he
continued this line of reasoning to say that societies topple because the
genetically superior aristocracy have fewer children than the inferior
peasants. To keep this from happening, he proposed two methods of
control -- Positive eugenics would create incentives for the very
intelligent or successful to reproduce. Negative eugenics would keep
the unfit from reproducing.
Applications
Galton's ideas grew in popularity both in America and abroad. In
1896, Conneticut had put in place laws that forbade sex with epileptics or
the mentally handicapped. In 1907, a state law was passed that
required sterilization of institutionalized, mentally retarded males, as
well as criminal males. This law would eventually lead to other
states' passage of similar laws; before they were repealed in 1956, 58,000
American citizens were sterilized. The Immigration Act of 1924
limited the immigration of "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded,
epileptics, insane persons" to the United States.
The philosophy of eugenics had taken root in Nazi Germany, as well.
In 1934, the Eugenic Sterilization Law was passed in Nazi Germany,
ordering the sterilization of individuals with genetically inherited
diseases; the Genetic Health Courts would decide who would and who would
not be sterilized. In 1939, the situation turned very ugly.
The Nazi laws were extended to allow the killing of genetically
undesirable people; by the time World War II was over, 75,000
"unfit" persons had been killed, including 5,000 children.
As the world discovered the atrocities tha had been committed, many began
to rethink their positions regarding these laws. In 1956, all United
States eugenic sterilization laws were repealed, and nine years later,
many of the immigration restrictions were lifted.
Modern Eugenics?
Thanks to the Human Genome Project and other genetic research, prenatal
testing allows for the detection of many illnesses, including cystic
fibrosis and Down's syndrome. Pregnant women can now know ahead of
time if their fetus will contract an incurable disease or condition.
Often, a diagnosis leads to the termination of the fetus. This can
be construed to be a combination of euthanasia and eugenics, an attempt to
keep "bad genes" out of the gene pool, or as an act of mercy,
terminating a fetus whose quality of life is in doubt. But which is
it? And whose decision is this really to make? Who gets to
decide what diseases/conditions are too bad to have to live with and what
diseases/conditions are not so bad? |