Eugenics

The Eugenics Movement What motivated  the Government to create  a eugenics movement? To what extent is **the eugenics movement ** constitutional ?

What was  the Eugenics movement ? The Eugenics movement aimed to create a “nomadic race”. Sterilization laws were enacted in over twenty seven states to prevent certain individuals from reproducing “with their own kind”. These laws were mandatory and were often performed involuntarily on thousands of people. The people involved in enforcing this movement weren’t soldiers or army men; they were esteemed professors and wealthy upper class citizens with racial intentions to enhance a superior race.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Who does the issue <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">affect <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 1.05pt;">“The War on the Weak” aimed to sterilize: immigrants, minorities, people who were disabled and institutionalized, petty thieves and even runaways. Also, women who were sexually promiscuous and those who were prostitutes were sterilized. Children born out of wet lock were also seen as unfit to reproduce because they were not born out of a married couple. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 1.05pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Myriad Pro Cond','sans-serif'; font-size: 20pt; margin: 0in 0in 1.05pt;">﻿<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">When did the issue <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">become nationalized?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt;">The birth of Eugenics was initiated by Sir Francis Galton who defined eugenics as a science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt;">However, Eugenics was later referred as a human selective reproduction with intent to create children with desirable traits, generally <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">through the approach of influencing differential birth rates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">From 1907-1960 more than 100,000 innocent Americans were sterilized in more than 30 states. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Finally in the 1920s the United States became the world center of eugenic activity and social policy.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">In what geographic area are people <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">most affected <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">?

California was home to an extensive eugenics movement in the twentieth century. Convinced that ideas of better breeding and genetic selection were central to settling the Pacific West, many European American migrants to California supported practices such as involuntary sterilization, immigration restriction, and racially-biased IQ testing. Indeed, 1/3 or 20,000 of the 60,000 sterilizations performed in the United States from 1900 to 1980 occurred in California under the aegis of the state government. Also, (toward the North) in the 1930’s, Maine passed marriage laws which prevented the marriage of “idiots”, “imbeciles”, and “feebleminded” persons, but did not define each of the categories.

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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">How has the issue <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">united or divided <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> people? media type="youtube" key="ufqOe0_pres" height="349" width="425" align="right"

The issue has united people due to the belief that immigrants and other minority groups are inferior and "unfit." During industrialization, a huge fluctuation of immigrants traveled to the north. When this occurred, many upper class white families felt fear that the future generation was degrading due to the mix of ethnicities; thus, they turned to the Eugenics movement.

National Research Council National Academy of Sciences Winston Churchill, Lothrop Stoddard, Woodrow Wilson, Margaret Sanger , Marie Stopes , H. G. Wells , Theodore Roosevelt , George Bernard Shaw , John Maynard Keynes , John Harvey Kellogg , Linus Pauling , Wendell Holmes, and Sidney Webb. The issue has divided people because many felt that this movement is unethical, and rather is based on racism. An example includes G. K. Chesterton, one of the greatest Christian apologists of the twentieth century, who many believed limited the influence of the eugenics movement in Great Britain. However, many were opposed to this movement once Adolf Hitler came into power and used it as his platform. He targeted the Jews, and history has shown the gruesome concentration camps they were forced to be in, and then sterilized with appalling deaths. Herbert S. Jennings, Lancelot Hogben, Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane
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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">How does this issue <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">connect <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> to the Constitution?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt;">The issue was going against the fourteenth and Fifth Amendment’s of the constitution. People have the right to procreate regardless of genetic structure. Also, the movement wasn’t equally protecting everyone since not all similarly situated people were being treated the same. The sterilization laws primarily targeted people seen as “feeble minded” based solely on IQ tests.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">What Supreme Court decisions <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">have been <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> decided which <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">affect <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> your issue? OR, what Supreme Court cases are in the process of being <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">argued <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> that may <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">affect <span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">your issue?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 1.05pt;">The most significant court case of the eugenics movement was Buck vs. Bell. Carrie Bell, a young 17 year old girl, and her mother were both deemed “feeble-minded” because both women were born out of wedlock and resided in Virginia Colony for epileptics and Feeble Minded. This case was used to justify more than 7500 sterilizations in Virginia. Later on, the ruling of sterilizing Carrie Buck was based on a “false diagnosis.”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Interesting facts

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">At fairs and exhibitions, eugenicists spread the word and hosted "fitter family" and "better baby" competitions to award blue ribbons to the finest human stock. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">2. The term "moron" comes from the eugenic movement. Coined by Henry Goddard, an early eugenic founder, it comes from the Greek word moros, meaning "stupid and foolish. Hence, a "moron" was anyone deemed unfit for life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">3. In 1907 Indiana became the first state to legalize forced sterilization on its mentally impaired patients and poorhouse residents. It was called Sharp's Bill (named after Dr. Harry Sharp who was illegaly sterilizing and castrasting men and women).

media type="youtube" key="IaH0Ws8RtSc" height="349" width="425" align="left"media type="youtube" key="ASrFufnMNDg" height="349" width="425" ** Sources ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">[]

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Black, Edwin. __War Against the Weak Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race__. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003.