Eugenics

Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that ostensibly aims to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have altered various human gene frequencies by inhibiting the fertility of people and groups purported to be inferior or promoting that of those purported to be superior.

The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom, and then spread to many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and most European countries (e.g. Sweden and Germany). In this period, people from across the political spectrum espoused eugenic ideas. Consequently, many countries adopted eugenic policies, intended to improve the quality of their populations' genetic stock.

While it originated as a progressive social movement, in contemporary usage, the term is closely associated with scientific racism.

Historically, the idea of eugenics has been used to argue for a broad array of practices ranging from prenatal care for mothers deemed genetically desirable to the forced sterilization and murder of those deemed unfit. To population geneticists, the term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without altering allele frequencies; for example, British-Indian scientist J. B. S. Haldane wrote that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent." Debate as to what exactly counts as eugenics continues today. Early eugenicists were mostly concerned with factors of measured intelligence that often correlated strongly with social class.

Eugenic practices lead to reduced genetic diversity which actually reduces the viability of a species, the opposite of the stated aim.

While Eugenics was centred in the United Kingdom it was embraced by Nazi Germany in the 1920s and was the basis of many of their crimes against humanity such as forced sterlisation.

Many feminists in the UK embraced eugenics in the early 20th century. Modern historians seek to blame men for feminists embracing eugenics during this period.

See Also

• Sally Miller Gearhart
• The future is female

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