Pros Of Eugenics

Eugenics, meaning well-born in Greek, is the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase desirable heritable characteristics. Eugenics was discovered by Sir Francis Galton, a British scholar and cousin of Charles Darwin, in 1883. In the United States, if people had “undesirable” hereditary traits, there were many procedures practiced by eugenicists to get rid of them, including perverted forms of euthanasia. Entire families would be segregated from society or murdered by eugenicists. The goals of eugenics are more attainable now in the modern era with advancements in technology. The eugenics era, from the United States to Nazi Germany, was a horrible time in history that should never repeat itself.

Eugenicists in the United States used Sir Francis Galton’s ideas to decide who to remove from society. “In the 1930s, America was infatuated with the pseudoscience of eugenics and its promise of strengthening the human race by culling the “unfit” from the genetic pool. Along with the “feebleminded,” insane, and criminal, those so classified included women who had sex out of wedlock (considered a

mental illness), orphans, the disabled, the poor, the homeless, epileptics, the blind and deaf and alcoholics. Some eugenicists advocated euthanasia, and in mental hospitals, this was quietly carried out on scores of people through “lethal neglect” or outright murder…..

A more popular tool of eugenics was forced sterilization, employed on a raft of lost souls who, through misbehavior or misfortune fell into the hands of state governments……Louie was never more than an inch from juvenile hall or jail, as a serial troublemaker, a failing student, and a suspect Italian, he was just the sort of rogue that eugenicists wanted to cull” (Hillenbrand 11). Contrary to popular belief, the Nazi Party in Germany did not begin the practice of eugenics. The actual practice of eugenics started in California in 1909. It was spread throughout the rest of the country by the 1930s. Many of the criteria of the “unfit” were things that people couldn’t control or needed help controlling, such as

being blind and deaf, having a disability, being poor and being an alcoholic. There were mass murders occurring in mental hospitals all around the country. The murders were explained as acts of euthanasia, or in other words, mercy killings. Eugenicists didn’t care that all people were granted the right to life under the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. They wanted their perfect society, which they, for some reason, thought was realistically viable. Something as minor as not being as smart as everyone else became a death sentence. Eugenicists believed that they could cleanse the world. No person is exactly like the next, so why try to get rid of the “undesirables,” when in reality, we are all undesirable in some way?
Eugenicists in the United States twisted Sir Francis Galton’s eugenics theory. Galton wanted to increase the amount of people with desirable traits through controlled breeding, which wasn’t directly harmful to anyone, but eugenicists in the United States subtracted the people with undesirable traits instead. They even removed groups of families. “In the process, the movement intended to subtract anyone classified outside the gentrified genetic lines drawn up by American eugenicists. How? By identifying so-called "defective" family trees and subjecting them to lifelong segregation and sterilization programs to kill their bloodlines. The grand plan was to literally wipe away the reproductive capability of those deemed weak and inferior--the so-called "unfit." ” (Black). American eugenicists used extreme measures to accomplish their goals. They segregated families from society for their lifetimes in order to diminish genetic undesirable qualities. Eugenicists even went to the point of murdering entire families, which they called “sterilization,” in order to kill their bloodlines. Based on their actions and beliefs, it is highly likely that eugenicists didn’t treat families condemned to lifelong segregation humanely. In their eyes, these families were misfits that weren’t worthy enough to live in society, so they believed they had no reason to treat them with any respect. During the eugenics period in the United States, entire families would disappear without a trace, often leaving friends helpless, confused and upset. One day they’re talking to a friend and the next thing they know, they never hear from them again. People around the eugenics uprising knew what was happening, but there was nothing they could do except watch it unfold around them, hoping they wouldn’t be culled next.
The world is growing technologically every single day. As technology ameliorates, eugenicists have access to more tools to continue the practice of eugenics, making the idea a more realistic one. “This progressive fascination with eugenics largely ended with World War II and the horrors wrought by National Socialism. But while the West has discarded the theory of the eugenics era, the practice urged by Fisher and others — the elimination or pre-emption, through careful reproductive planning, of the weaker members of the human species — has become a more realistic possibility than it ever was in the 1920s and ’30s” (Douthat). The United States eventually ended it’s eugenics era after World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. Hitler hid behind eugenics to explain his lunacy throughout the six and a half years of the Holocaust. Now in retrospect, many people look at the eugenics era of the United States as a grim memory that they’d not prefer to revisit. The reality is, eugenics is even more possible now than it ever was before, due to huge advancements in technology. Scientists have discovered much more on genetic blueprints in recent history, making it easier to detect these “unfitting” qualities that eugenicists want to destroy. Also, in recent history, abortion clinics have become much more accessible all over the country. So in theory, if eugenicists were to start up again, or attempt to, all they would need is DNA from a mother and father to map the genome of a fetus. If they discover any of the unfitting genes, they could acquire parental permission to terminate the pregnancy. This process would make it much easier for eugenicists because their unfit subjects wouldn’t even have the chance to be born.
The rise of eugenics in the United States was an ugly time in history, rarely spoken of. People were systematically murdered and segregated from society just because they weren’t seen as “perfect”. During its rise in the United States, eugenics also began in Germany. Adolph Hitler assumed the position of Chancellor of Germany, following closely the actions of eugenicists in the United States. The Holocaust was one of the many direct outcomes of the spread of eugenics. It seems that most people have disregarded eugenics in the modern era, but as technology enhances, the idea of eugenics is becoming more and more feasible in our world. The 1930s was a time period when eugenics was very inhumanely practiced , and was one of the worst time periods in United States and in world history, hopefully never to be repeated.