Eugenics and Genetics/Evolution

Eugenics, the practice of selectively mating people with specific desirable traits that would be inherited in order to improve the human species. This term was invented in the late 1800s by Francis Galton. Galton studied statistics, psychology, genetics, and more. While studying humans Galton noticed differences in characteristics like a superior intelligence in England’s upper classes. With his information, he assumed these characteristics were inheritable, meaning that these “superior” traits could be passed down to future generations. This idea became popular when Charles Davenport; biologist, and Harry Laughlin; former teacher interested in breeding, advocated for the Eugenics Movement. They studied “undesirable” traits like mental disability, dwarfism, pauperism, promiscuity, and criminality by using family pedigrees. During this time, genetics were well understood due to the work of Gregor Mendel. By working with pea plants, he was able to come to the conclusion that offspring inherit one allele from each parent, meaning that your DNA (which wasn’t discovered yet) is a combination from your parents. This would make sense why people believed “undesirable” traits could be eliminated, but with the science/knowledge understood in today’s world it seems pretty obvious that things like promiscuity and criminality can’t be genetically inherited or determined using a pedigree. It seems like eugenicists didn’t consider the education levels or socioeconomic issues that minorities were facing.

The idea of Eugenics grew to become a social movement, popular in the 1920s and 30s. The American Eugenics Society was founded followed by other groups and societies around the country. The movement concentrated on removing negative traits where they were found in poor, uneducated minority groups. Eugenists essentially forced sterilization to focus on disabled individuals as well as those suffering from poverty, eventually leading to 64,000 Americans forced into sterilization. African American women were often sterilized without consent during other medical procedures.
This idea goes hand in hand with the “modern science” of this time. Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains that inherited differences will affect an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce. Essentially meaning that those with the best genes would reproduce more and pass down “better” traits, creating more offspring that will survive better. The Eugenics movement was in a way artificially creating natural selection. However, instead of allowing time to pass and letting evolution do it’s thing; the only factor that determined if you were “fit to survive” was your race. This allowed powerful white people to use “science” as a means of spreading their racist ideas.

This case was taken to the Supreme Court in 1927, with Buck v. Bell. The court sided in agreement that “society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind...” (Black 2003). However, the Eugenics movement was stopped once the Holocaust occurred in Germany, which left the population terrified.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/
http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/connections/535eee477095aa000000025b