What is the meaning of eugenics? History and definition of the controversial philosophy and social movement
The 'science' is now associated with the horrors of Nazi Germany but was once popular throughout the world
EUGENICS is a movement now associated with the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis during Hitler’s rule over Germany.
Here's what you need to know about the now-discredited "science" which actually began in Britain and was once popular throughout the world.
What is eugenics?
The Oxford English Dictionary describes Eugenics as: “The science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.”
The term was first coined by British explorer and natural scientist Sir Francis Galton in 1883.
The debunked "science" was once practiced the world over before it was widely discredited, following its use by the Nazis to justify their atrocities in trying to create a master race.
What was the idea behind eugenics?
Proponents of eugenics claimed “undesirable” genetic traits like dwarfism, deafness and even minor defects like a cleft palate could and should be eliminated from the gene pool through selective breeding.
Scientists would measure the skulls of criminals as they sought to identify a genetic trait that caused people to offend – so they would wipe that group out.
Others suggested simply eradicating entire groups of people because of the colour of their skin.
The first sterilisation law – which stopped certain categories of disabled people from having children – was passed in Indiana, USA, in 1907.
This was 26 years before a similar law was introduced by the Nazis in Germany in 1933.
In fact, Nazi propaganda pointed to the precedent set by America as Hitler sought to justify his own sterilisation programme.
Where did eugenics come from?
In the decades following Charles Darwin’s 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, the craze like wildfire spread through Britain, the United States and Europe.
Galton – Darwin’s cousin who coined the name eugenics – became obsessed with his relative’s theory of evolution.
He believed breeding humans with superior mental and physical traits could help the human race evolve in a better way and was essential to the well-being of society.
He wrote: “Eugenics is the science which deals with all influences which improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those which develop them to the utmost advantage.”
Galton was knighted for his scientific contributions and his writings played a key role in launching the eugenics movement in the UK and US.
How popular was eugenics and how far was it taken?
Shocking photos from the time show the harrowing lengths scientists went to in the heyday of the eugenics movement to selectively breed humans.
In 1907, the Eugenics Education Society was founded in Britain to campaign for sterilisation and marriage restrictions for the weak to prevent the degeneration of Britain's population.
A year later, Sir James Crichton-Brown, giving evidence before the 1908 Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded, recommended the compulsory sterilisation of those with learning disabilities and mental illness.
And in 1931, Labour MP Archibald Church proposed a bill for the compulsory sterilisation of certain categories of "mental patient" in Parliament.
Although such a law was never actually passed in Britain, this did not prevent many sterilisations being carried out under various forms of coercion.
Meanwhile from 1907 in the US, men, women and children who were deemed “insane, idiotic, imbecile, feebleminded or epileptic" were forcibly sterilised – often without being informed of what was being done to them.
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By 1938, 33 American states permitted the forced sterilisation of women with learning disabilities.
And 29 American states had passed compulsory sterilisation laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions.
Laws in America also restricted the right of certain disabled people to marry.
But sometimes it went even further, with one mental institution in Illinois, USA, euthanising patients by deliberately infecting them with tuberculosis – an act they justified as a mercy killing that cut the weak link in the human race.
Other countries which passed similar sterilisation laws in the 1920s and 1930s included Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
After these kinds of ideas took root in Nazi Germany and sparked the horrors of the Holocaust, eugenics became a dirty word.
With the dark conclusion of its philosophy exposed before the world, it became difficult to justify forced sterilisation as a tool for the greater good.
All eugenics-based laws were eventually repealed in the 1940s.