Preview

What Were The Positive And Negative Effects Of Eugenics

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
532 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Were The Positive And Negative Effects Of Eugenics
The guiding principles of the early eugenics were science, racism, and propaganda. Eugenics was developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race. It fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis. A lot of people at the time praise eugenics. They saw eugenics as a way to improve the humanity. Francis Galton felt that the dysfunctional qualities of a human race could be explained through their genetics. Being a criminal, mental retardation, insanity, and rebelliousness is what was consider dysfunctional. In order to control this people believed that reproduce should be controlled.
There were two types of eugenics system positive and negative. The positive eugenics wanted all the healthy
…show more content…
The eugenics organization use his information as support. Interviews and medical histories were collected. Soldiers were given bad ratings because Harry Laughlin claimed genetics defectiveness was coming to the U.S. through the foreign countries.
Primary traits such as eye color, hair texture, physical issues, hair color, mental disorders, pigmentation and personalities were analyzed. All types of behaviors were considered when rating people traits. At the time eugenics was one of the popular topic in the lives of Americans. There were a lot of promoting through news articles and textbook teaching segregation. There were a lot of closed mind and negative people during the time eugenics were happening. Those people didn’t comprehend the complexity of the human genetics.
Scientists focused more on behavioral and mental traits. During the time IQ tests were constantly given but wasn’t being accepted as being an accurate measure of adequacy. The researchers also had difficulties obtaining statistics. Most of the facts stated had unreliable sources. Eugenics research concluded that daily routines would affect a person genes. Based on the data that fruit flies would undergo some genetic changes when the temperature

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    When studying the Holocaust, it is critical to understand how the science of eugenics influenced the Nazis, however it is just as important to recognize how the United States influenced eugenics in Germany.…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sanger simultaneously sought to connect birth control to the eugenics movement. This would apply to mostly women of color, and most of the time women were being sterilized without their consent. She believed that in doing so poor families and families of color would have less children resulting in a more “fit” population, since they have undesirable traits such as low intelligence. McCormick was also apart of a suffrage movement that excluded black women and other minorities.…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    What may start off having even the best of intentions could end up having some serious negative consequences. Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt seemed to have started his belief in eugenics within a sense of nationalism where it was a woman’s duty to the state to birth and raise a family. He emphasized this view through his conservation programs where white, farming women were the epitome of the ideal type of person that should be procreating. Unlike the weak, feebleminded, retarded, deaf, blind, etc. who should not pass along their unwanted genetics. There are a few other authors in our text book, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, that also followed this program of eugenics masked by a conservationist agenda.…

    • 2674 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    sociology chapter 9

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    5. Eugenics and physiognomy contradict the saying, “You can’t judge a book by its cover” because they explain it in terms of people. They say that the external of a person is not the determining factor and people should not be judged based on that. Today, although in theory it is nice, people still judge based on color, race etc.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    * Backers of Eugenics (science of genetic lines and the inheritable traits they pass on from generation to generation) claimed that traits could be traced through blood lines and bred into populations (for positive traits) or taken out of blood lines (for negative traits)…

    • 4161 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the 1920’s, science and social legislation came to be intertwined, and the study of human genetic variation was born; this was known as the term eugenics. Eugenics is the improvement of a species by emphasizing the characteristics that are beneficial. Positive eugenics it is the act of improving a species by emphasizing the propagation of those traits that are seen as beneficial. Negative Eugenics is the act of improving the species by preventing the spread of those traits that are seen as dysgenic or harmful.…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eugenics Ethical Issues

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I believe that the Eugenics program had many issues, both technical and ethical. The basis of the Eugenics program - that an individual’s life can be seen as “a burden” and not worth society’s resources - brings up multiple moral arguments. Who is the judge of whether a life is more valuable than another? Does this not give government workers and referrers the jurisdiction to play God? Inherently, this program had a multitude of factors that were not taken into account. One issue is the measurements used to quantify whether a person should have the right to reproduce or not. The qualifications were too unclear, and a range of reasons were used, from IQ tests, mental illness, handicaps, and even sexual promiscuity. Moreover, while the program was active, the state did not clarify who should make the final decisions. Unlike most states, in which medical professionals mainly acted as the final word, North Carolina allowed social workers, medical professionals, teachers, and even neighbors to have a say in who could possibly be sterilized. Many of these individuals reported unsuspecting…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Genetic testing is being used in the medical field to decrease dangers in patients. The negative connotations brought by these examinations might be the reason a person, whom may have had great talents, will lower their capacity to excel. Insurance companies grant pensions and healthcare, consequently if a person were to be diagnosed even with a minimal chance of cancer by…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Eugenics Movement was a movement that wanted to improve the human race. They had an idea that there were superior human hereditary traits as well as inferior human hereditary traits. Superior human traits involved having blue eyes, blonde hair, and light skin, all of these traits lead to assumptions that these people were intelligent as well as great athletic ability. Inferior human traits included dark skin and dark colored eyes which lead to the assumption that these people with these traits were unintelligent. The Eugenics Movement used multiple strategies to promote improvements of human hereditary traits, such as anti-miscegenation laws, birth control experimentation, and coercive sterilization. The relationship between the Eugenics…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eugenics In California

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Eugenics is the desire to improve the human gene pool by discouraging, or in some cases forcefully controlling, the reproduction of the unfit (Wellerstein pg. 29). The people branded to be "unfit", were seen as recipients of undesirable heritable characteristics. The act of forcefully restricting people of reproduction is a form of negative eugenics.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Race Cleansing

    • 1859 Words
    • 8 Pages

    There is always a binary opposition to living beings’ existence. Binary opposition is the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive terms: on/off, up/down, left/right, and strong/weak. To be born as an epileptic and to be labeled as feebleminded is not the child’s fault. Such a child has his/her own right to live on earth. Where there is birth, there is death no matter whether the person is rich or poor. Eugenics-the theory as well as the word (which means “wellborn”) -originated with Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin who is inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Eugenics movement started sterilization (making infertile): to stop a person or animal from reproducing, e.g. by surgical removal or alteration of the reproductive organs of epileptics and feebleminded people in America. Poor and powerless people were victimized by the Eugenics movement. The poor were victimized because of a lack of money and power. All movements like Eugenics violated the human rights of the weak and poor people in America.…

    • 1859 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.”…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eugenics is the belief that selecting, partners, controlling the reproduction of certain groups of women, and controlling the generating of offspring improves the quality of human life. This practice dates back to ancient Greece, but after the Nazis adopted the practice of forced sterilization, it gained much criticism and scrutiny and was disapproved of by many people. Forced sterilization in history has almost always been dictated by people in power.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As research continues to uncover new disease-causing mutations, the prospect of stopping the transmission of heritable diseases increases. With the use of modern technology, expecting parents can now be prescreened in order to determine their carrier status for certain diseases. Parents who choose to use in vitro fertilization are able to choose embryos that are free of disease due to preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Additionally, parents can be provided with information on their unborn child with the use of prenatal genetic testing. Some individuals view modern genetic technology as eugenic; however, this biggest difference between eugenics now and eugenics during the 1900s is consent. Today individuals pursue genetic testing by choice and policies on ethics and consent prevent reoccurrences of the immoral endeavors within the field of…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At this point in time, which was the early decades of the 1900’s, war made life chaotic. The acceptance of Eugenics promoted a more peaceful, proper future (which we today can obviously see as being severely incorrect!). Scientifically, Eugenics was also receiving praise. It was viewed as being a way to improve humanity. There was a fear that the intelligent people would have fewer kids, and the “less than adequate” would in turn have more kids. It was believed that this would have a negative impact on natural selection, and be harmful to society. To promote such an idea, there were two main “methods”- positive eugenics and negative eugenics. The former involves trying to promote the healthy/regular people to have children. The negative eugenics system involved using medical and sterilization (which I will discuss more later on) processes to prevent the others from having kids. Awkwardly enough, to be deemed “unfit” and to undergo negative eugenics was not a punishment. After all, people viewed the problem as being a defective…

    • 1800 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays