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Genetics impact on society
An introduction of a comprehensive essay about. genetics and human welfare
Eugenics abstract summary
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Eugenics is the study or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species. Sounds good, right? But the question here is, is it moral to sacrifice someones life or the ability for someone to create life in the name of science? Surely Francis Galton and Gregor Mendel thought so.
In the nineteenth century, biology was at its peak. Charles Darwin, who just happens to be Galton’s cousin, had just introduced his idea of survival of the fittest. Galton then took that thesis and dissected it. The result of that mess was what we know today as eugenics. The initial proposal was for genetically perfect people to reproduce with others of the same kind. It was believed that mixing the inferior people and the so called perfect beings would “yield a corruption of blood”(Lombardo,8).
It was not until the Civil War ended when America started exploring this new world of genetics. People came up with the belief that “genetics appeared to be the cause behind human social problems - such as pauperism, nomadism, criminality,alcoholism, feeble-mindedness, rebelliousness and prostitution - as the inheritance of defective germ plasm” (Allen,4). As bizarre as this sounds, eugenicists and their wealthy followers swore by this. With this idea in mind, doctors in prison and mental institutions started sterilizing the inmates and patients. Their reasoning for doing this was that it was better to sterilize these genetically impaired people and let them go knowing there won’t be any other generations of that same problem than to keep them locked up under taxpayers dollar.
How could this have been moral? Even Galton, the man who officially named this branch of science called this negative eugenics. These men and women were sterilized...
... middle of paper ...
...t still isn’t, and it never will be.
Works Cited
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Apr. 2014.
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"Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings." United
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June 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
"EugenicsArchive.Org: Image Archive on American Eugenics Movement."
EugenicsArchive.Org: Image Archive on American Eugenics Movement. N.p., n.d.
Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
"First Amendment." LII / Legal Information Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Lombardo, Paul. Three Generations, No Imbeciles. Baltimore: JHU, 2008. Print.
Meikos, David. "Eugenics Research Methods." Essay 3: Research Methods. N.p., n.d. Web.
22 Apr. 2014.
The eugenics movement started in the early 1900s and was adopted by doctors and the general public during the 1920s. The movement aimed to create a better society through the monitoring of genetic traits through selective heredity. Over time, eugenics took on two different views. Supporters of positive eugenics believed in promoting childbearing by a class who was “genetically superior.” On the contrary, proponents of negative eugenics tried to monitor society’s flaws through the sterilization of the “inferior.”
The American Eugenics Movement was led by Charles Davenport and was a social agenda to breed out undesirable traits with an aim of racial purification. Eugenics was a used to breed out the worst and weakest to improve the genetic composition of the human race, and advocated for selective breeding to achieve this. The science of eugenics rested on simple mendelian genetics, which was a mistake because they were assuming complex behaviors could be reduced to simple mendelian genes. After Nazi Germany adopted the ideas behind the American eugenics movement to promote the Aryan race, the eugenics movement was completely discredited.
Neoeugenics is the idea of new, “neo”, eugenics or a new way of creating a healthier race. Eugenics was first defined in the late 1800s by a man named Sir Francis Galton who said that it was basically the study of traits that will cause an advantage or disadvantage in the traits of future generations. Eugenics soon turned from being about the use of artificial selection of breeding to create a stronger species, to being about the advancement of certain races over others. When talking about neo eugenics, it is believed that it may turn into something similar to that of eugenics in that the use of artificial selection would now be used to bring the upper class higher in standards of health and wellbeing as well as beauty. Others believe that the use of neo eugenics will help create a healthier, more stable species. Whether bad or good, the way that eugenics will advance will be in designer babies.
Galton, David J., and Clare J. Galton. "Francis Galton: And Eugenics Today." Journal of Medical Ethics, 24.2 (1998): 99-101. JSTOR. Web. 8 Mar. 2010.
Eugenic selection is when people believe that when you go and get a sonogram and the doctor notices that the baby has a disability, you should get an abortion no matter how far along you are. That is not even right. An abortion no matter how far along you are? That could be 4 weeks or even 20 weeks or more? It is just inhumane, in my opinion.
Roberts stresses the threats that eugenics presents. Roberts further stresses this type of bias by noticing the way that 24 states in addition to the District of Columbia had set up laws restricting the marriages of individuals who were believed be hereditarily flawed as late as 1913. She likewise noticed that the Nazis modeled their sanitization laws after several ordered in California. Roberts recounted that young ladies and older women were frowned upon as a result of sexual indiscrimination or on account of conceiving an offspring out of wedlock. The pattern of eugenics proceeded into the 1940's at the beginning of that decade thirty states had passed laws banning interracial
Eugenics was a proposed way to improve the human species by encouraging or permitting reproduction of people with desirable genetic characteristics. Higham says, "The dazzling development of modern genetics around 1900 revealed principles of heredity that seemed entirely independent of environmental influences." (Doc 4) In Grant's "Passing of the Great Race", he claims bad gene mixture based upon differences in skin, eye color, and lack of working abilities.
Eugenics- Eugenics is a term coined by Francis Galton in 1883 and it is the belief and practice of improving the genetic quality of the human population. This idea that one could trace hereditary problems and find solutions for them gained significant ground in addressing certain societal issues such as poor people and welfare. Two types of eugenics emerged, positive and negative, but the U.S., negative eugenics was preferred. This is the idea of destroying defectives and degenerates from the population to promote and preserve the fittest, a very social Darwinist idea. This is important to sexuality because many homosexuals were sterilized, thus creating the stigma that homosexuality was a disease that could be cured.
The modern day eugenics movement all started with Francis Galton who, in 1869, proposed that procreation between the upper class men and the wealthy women could lead to a superior race. This led to the American Eugenics Society being founded in 1926, a society that wanted restricted access for immigrants of inferior genetic makeup into America as well as the right to sterilize the insane, retarded and epileptic within the country. This was with a view of furthering humanity and improving the gene pool by preventing the poorly endowed (genetically speaking) from continuing their blight on the world.
The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists’ desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society. The American Eugenics Movement attempted to unethically obliterate the rising tide of lower classes by immorally mandating organized sterilization and race based experimentation.
The beginning of the Eugenics Movement all started at Cold Spring Harbor, New York. The United States coined the term Eugenics from Great Britain in the early 1900s. In the year 1910, a man by the name of Charles B. Davenport founded the Eugenics Records Office (ERO). The funds for this building came from Mrs. E.H. Harriman (“Eugenics: Did the Eugenics Movement Benefit the United States?”). The movement was initially meant to purify the Gene Pool. One of the ways this was done was through immigration control. The mixing of genes (mixing of different races) was extremely frowned upon for the unknown outcomes that would eventually surface. One issue that was very high priority was “feeblemindedness” within the gene pool; the ERO wanted to remove this mutated gene to make the non-feebleminded people prosper, making them the “strongest” gene carriers (“Learning from History: Long Island’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, circa 1920.”). The bulk of the movement happened within three decades, in order to start the change towards fitter families (“Learning from History: Long Island’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, circa 1920.”).
The concept of eugenics was not initially intended to prevent overcrowding, however, it would later be used as a form of population control. Eugenics is the idea of improving society by breeding fitter people. Francis Galton was the first person to originate this term and was a major proponent of the concept during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The practice of eugenics was originally performed through the use of selective breeding. Eugenics was a progressive idea, driven by social perceptions. In fact, "many of its most strident advocates were socialist, who saw eugenics as enlightened state planning of reproduction."2 Fearing the degradation of society, the elite desired to prevent further social decay of the world by eliminating individuals who were considered unfit physically, mentally, or socially.
The term eugenics was coined in the late 19th century. Its goal was to apply the breeding practices and techniques used in plants and animals to human reproduction. Francis Galton stated in his Essays in Eugenics that he wished to influence "the useful classes" in society to put more of their DNA in the gene pool. The goal was to collect records of families who were successful by virtue of having three or more adult male children who have gain superior positions to their peers. His view on eugenics can best be summarized by the following passage:
Genetic engineering gives the power to change many aspects of nature and could result in a lot of life-saving and preventative treatments. Today, scientists have a greater understanding of genetics and its role in living organisms. However, if this power is misused, the damage could be very great. Therefore, although genetic engineering is a field that should be explored, it needs to be strictly regulated and tested before being put into widespread use. Genetic engineering has also, opened the door way to biological solutions for world problems, as well as aid for body malfunctions. I think that scientists should indeed stop making genetic engineering for humans, because it will soon prove to be devastating to the human race. It would cause rivalries and tension among different kinds of genetically engineered humans for dominance and power.
When created in 1923, the American Eugenics Society exemplified an air of reform with a seemingly positive purpose, however this cannot be further from the truth. In reality, the society polluted the air with myths of weeding out imperfections with the Galtonian ideal, the breeding of the fittest (Carison). The founder of the society, Charles Davensport , preached that those who are imperfect should be eliminated(Marks). From the school desk to the pulpit, the fallacies of the eugenics movement were forced into society. Preachers often encouraged the best to marry the best while biology professors would encourage DNA testing to find out ones fate (Selden). A...