Editing Eugenics (section)

==Historical eugenics==
{{Main|History of eugenics}}

=== Ancient and medieval origins===
{{See also|Sparta#Birth and death}}
[[File:The selection of the infant Spartans, Giuseppe Diotti.jpg|thumb|250px|Giuseppe Diotti's ''The selection of the infant Spartans'' (1840)]]
 
According to [[Plutarch#Spartan lives and sayings|Plutarch]], in [[Sparta]] every proper citizen's child was inspected by the council of elders, the [[Gerousia]], which determined whether or not the child was fit to live.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Bill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_R6yDwAAQBAJ |title=A Historical Sociology of Disability: Human Validity and Invalidity from Antiquity to Early Modernity |date=26 September 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780429615207 |series=Routledge Advances in Disability Studies |location=Abingdon |quote=The Spartan Council of Elders or Gerousia decided whether a new-born child brought before them would live or die. Impairment, deformity, even puny appearance was enough to condemn a child to death.|access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> If the child was deemed unfit, the child was thrown into a chasm.<ref>''Making Patriots'' by [[Walter Berns]], 2001, page 12, "and whose infants, if they chanced to be puny or ill-formed, were exposed in a chasm (the Apothetae) and left to die;"</ref><ref>{{cite book | author-link=Plutarch | url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/lycurgus*.html | last=Plutarch | title=Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans}}</ref> Plutarch is the sole historical source for the Spartan practice of systemic infanticide motivated by eugenics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bayliss |first1=Andrew J. |title=4. Raising a Spartan |journal=The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction |date=26 May 2022 |pages=59–76 |doi=10.1093/actrade/9780198787600.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-878760-0 }}</ref> While [[infanticide]] was practiced by Greeks, no contemporary sources support Plutarch's claims of mass infanticide motivated by eugenics.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece |journal=Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |date=2021 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=747 |doi=10.2972/hesperia.90.4.0747 |last1=Sneed |s2cid=245045967 }}</ref> In 2007 the suggestion that infants were dumped near Mount Taygete was called into question due to a lack of physical evidence. Anthropologist Theodoros Pitsios' research found only bodies from adolescence up to the age of approximately 35.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2007-12-10 |title=Study finds no evidence of discarded Spartan babies |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-12-11/study-finds-no-evidence-of-discarded-spartan-babies/983848 |access-date=2023-10-12}}</ref><ref>"Ancient Sparta – Research Program of Keadas Cavern" https://web.archive.org/web/20131002192630/http://www.anthropologie.ch/d/publikationen/archiv/2010/documents/03PITSIOSreprint.pdf</ref>

[[Plato's political philosophy]] included the belief that human reproduction should be cautiously monitored and controlled by the state through [[selective breeding]].<ref>[[Galton, David J.]] (1998). "Greek theories on eugenics." ''Journal of Medical Ethics'', 24(4), 263–267. doi:10.1136/jme.24.4.263</ref><ref>The Republic, 457c10-d3</ref>

According to [[Tacitus]] ({{circa |56}} – {{circa |120}}), a Roman of the [[Roman Empire|Imperial Period]], the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes of his day killed any member of their community they deemed cowardly, unwarlike or "stained with abominable vices", usually by drowning them in swamps.<ref>[[Tacitus]]. [[wikisource:Germania (Church & Brodribb)#XII|Germania.XII]] "Traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; the coward, the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices, is plunged into the mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him."</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sanders |first=Karin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FU4H-JKPbhkC&pg=PA62 |title=Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination |date=2009 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=9780226734040 |page=62 |quote=Tacitus's Germania, read through this kind of filter, became a manual for racial and sexual eugenics |access-date=23 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801132652/https://books.google.com/books?id=FU4H-JKPbhkC&pg=PA62 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Modern historians see Tacitus' ethnographic writing as unreliable in such details.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krebs |first=Christopher |title=A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich |date=2011 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393062656 |location=New York |pages=48–49}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Simon |first=Emily T. |date=21 February 2008 |title=Ancient text has long and dangerous reach |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/02/ancient-text-has-long-and-dangerous-reach/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626023142/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/02/ancient-text-has-long-and-dangerous-reach/ |archive-date=26 June 2020 |access-date=24 June 2020 |website=The Harvard Gazette}}</ref>

=== Academic origins ===
{{See also|Galton Laboratory|Eugenics Record Office}}
[[File:Sir Francis Galton by Gustav Graef.jpg|thumb|[[Francis Galton]] (1822–1911) was a British polymath who coined the term "eugenics".|203x203px]]
The term ''eugenics'' and its modern field of study were first formulated by [[Francis Galton]] in 1883,<ref>{{cite book |last=Galton |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Galton |title=Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development |url= https://archive.org/details/inquiriesintohu00galtgoog |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |date=1883 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/inquiriesintohu00galtgoog/page/n217 199]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=James D. |first1=Watson |url=https://www.amazon.com/DNA-The-Secret-Life-ebook/dp/B001PSEQAG |title=DNA: The Secret of Life |last2=Berry |first2=Andrew |date=2009 |publisher=Knopf |access-date=31 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315093939/https://www.amazon.com/DNA-The-Secret-Life-ebook/dp/B001PSEQAG |archive-date=15 March 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Galton |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Galton |date=1874 |title=On men of science, their nature and their nurture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_uE-bpGo2N4C&pg=PA227 |url-status=live |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain |volume=7 |pages=227–236 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727115814/https://books.google.com/books?id=_uE-bpGo2N4C&pg=PA227 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |access-date=7 June 2020}}</ref>{{efn|name=Stirpiculture|He concretely intended it to replace the word "[[Oneida stirpiculture|stirpiculture]]", which he had used previously but which had come to be mocked due to its perceived sexual overtones.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Lester Frank |last1=Ward |first2=Emily |last2=Palmer Cape |first3=Sarah Emma |last3=Simons |author-link1=Lester Frank Ward|author-link2=Emily Palmer Cape|title=Glimpses of the Cosmos |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KDEZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA382 |access-date=11 April 2012 |date=1918 |publisher=G.P. Putnam |pages=382 ff |chapter=Eugenics, Euthenics and Eudemics |archive-date=28 May 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130528073057/http://books.google.com/books?id=KDEZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA382 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} directly drawing on the recent work delineating [[natural selection]] by his half-cousin [[Charles Darwin]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://galton.org/letters/darwin/correspondence.htm |title=Correspondence between Francis Galton and Charles Darwin |publisher=Galton.org |access-date=28 November 2011 |archive-date=11 January 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120111120718/http://galton.org/letters/darwin/correspondence.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/correspondence-volume-17 |work=Darwin Correspondence Project |title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin |volume=Volume 17: 1869 |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=28 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120124215918/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/correspondence-volume-17 |archive-date=24 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="Bowler 309">{{Citation |last=Bowler |first=Peter J |author-link=Peter J. Bowler|title=Evolution: The History of an Idea |date=2003 |pages=308–310 |edition=3rd |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>{{efn|name=Weisman etc.|Though the origins of the concept also had to do with certain interpretations of [[Mendelian inheritance]] and the theories of [[August Weismann]].{{r|Blom 2008|pp=335–336}}}} He published his observations and conclusions chiefly in his influential book ''[[Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development]]''. Galton himself defined it as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Black|2003|p=18}}</ref> The first to systematically apply Darwinism theory to human relations, Galton believed that various desirable human qualities were also [[Heredity|hereditary]] ones, although Darwin strongly disagreed with this elaboration of his theory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hansen |first=Randall |title=Eugenics: Immigration and Asylum from 1990 to Present |date=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |editor-last1=Gibney |editor-first1=Matthew J. |chapter=Eugenics |access-date=23 September 2013 |editor-last2=Hansen |editor-first2=Randall |chapter-url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abcmigrate/eugenics}}</ref>

Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities and received funding from various sources.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Allen |first=Garland E. |title=Was Nazi eugenics created in the US? |journal=EMBO Reports |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=451–452 |date=2004 |doi=10.1038/sj.embor.7400158 |pmc=1299061}}</ref> Organizations were formed to win public support for and to sway opinion towards responsible eugenic values in parenthood, including the British [[Galton Institute|Eugenics Education Society]] of 1907 and the [[Society for Biodemography and Social Biology|American Eugenics Society]] of 1921. Both sought support from leading clergymen and modified their message to meet religious ideals.<ref name="Baker 2014 pp. 281–302">{{cite journal |last=Baker |first=G. J. |title=Christianity and Eugenics: The Place of Religion in the British Eugenics Education Society and the American Eugenics Society, {{circa|1907–1940}} |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=27 |issue=2 |date=2014 |pages=281–302  |doi=10.1093/shm/hku008 |pmid=24778464 |pmc=4001825}}</ref> In 1909, the Anglican clergymen [[William Inge (priest, born 1860)|William Inge]] and [[James Peile]] both wrote for the Eugenics Education Society. Inge was an invited speaker at the 1921 [[International Eugenics Conference]], which was also endorsed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York [[Patrick Joseph Hayes]].<ref name="Baker 2014 pp. 281–302" />

Three [[International Eugenics Conferences]] presented a global venue for eugenicists, with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York City. [[Eugenics in the United States|Eugenic policies in the United States]] were first implemented by state-level legislators in the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=Deborah |last2=Kurzman |first2=Charles |title=Globalizing Social Movement Theory: The Case of Eugenics |journal=Theory and Society |volume=33 |issue=5 |pages=487–527 |date=October 2004 |doi=10.1023/b:ryso.0000045719.45687.aa |jstor=4144884 |s2cid=143618054 |url= http://kurzman.unc.edu/files/2011/06/Barrett_Kurzman_Eugenics.pdf |access-date=17 September 2013 |archive-date=24 May 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130524163917/http://kurzman.unc.edu/files/2011/06/Barrett_Kurzman_Eugenics.pdf |url-status=live |quote=Policy adoption: In the pre–World War I period, eugenic policies were enacted only in the United States, which was both the hotbed of international eugenics activism and unusually decentralized politically, so that sub-national state units could adopt such policies in the absence of central state approval.}}</ref> Eugenic policies also took root in France, Germany, and Great Britain.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hawkins |first=Mike |title=Social Darwinism in European and American Thought |url= https://archive.org/details/socialdarwinisme00hawk |url-access=limited |date=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521574341 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/socialdarwinisme00hawk/page/n71 62], 292}}</ref> Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, the eugenic policy of [[compulsory sterilization|sterilizing]] certain mental patients was implemented in other countries including Belgium,<ref>{{cite journal |title=The National Office of Eugenics in Belgium |journal=Science |volume=57 |issue=1463 |page=46 |date=12 January 1923 |doi=10.1126/science.57.1463.46 |bibcode=1923Sci....57R..46.}}</ref> Brazil,<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Sales Augusto |last1=dos Santos |first2=Laurence |last2=Hallewell |date=January 2002 |title=Historical Roots of the 'Whitening' of Brazil |journal=Latin American Perspectives |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=61–82 |jstor=3185072 |doi=10.1177/0094582X0202900104 |s2cid=220914100}}</ref> [[Compulsory sterilization in Canada|Canada]],<ref>{{cite book |last=McLaren |first=Angus |title=Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885–1945 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1990 |isbn=9780771055447 |url-access=registration |url= https://archive.org/details/ourownmasterrace0000mcla}}{{page needed|date=June 2014}}</ref> [[Eugenics in Japan|Japan]] and [[Compulsory sterilisation in Sweden|Sweden]].

[[Frederick Osborn]]'s 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy" framed eugenics as a [[social philosophy]]—a philosophy with implications for [[social order]].<ref name="Osborn1937">{{cite journal |last=Osborn |first=Frederick |author-link=Frederick Osborn |date=June 1937 |title=Development of a Eugenic Philosophy |journal=[[American Sociological Review]] |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=389–397 |doi=10.2307/2084871 |jstor=2084871}}</ref> That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of [[sexual reproduction]] among people with desired traits ("positive eugenics") or reduced rates of sexual reproduction or [[Sterilization (medicine)|sterilization]] of people with less-desired or undesired traits ("negative eugenics").{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

In addition to being practiced in a number of countries, eugenics was internationally organized through the [[International Federation of Eugenics Organizations]].{{sfn|Black|2003|p=240}} Its scientific aspects were carried on through research bodies such as the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics]],{{sfn|Black|2003|p=286}} the Cold Spring Harbor Carnegie Institution for [[Experimental Evolution]],{{sfn|Black|2003|p=40}} and the [[Eugenics Record Office]].{{sfn|Black|2003|p=45}} Politically, the movement advocated measures such as sterilization laws.{{sfn|Black|2003|loc=Chapter 6: The United States of Sterilization}} In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness.{{sfn|Black|2003|p=237}} Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure "[[Nordic race]]" or "[[Aryan race|Aryan]]" genetic pool and the eventual elimination of "unfit" races.{{sfn|Black|2003|loc=Chapter 5: Legitimizing Raceology}}{{sfn|Black|2003|loc=Chapter 9: Mongrelization}}

Many leading British politicians subscribed to the theories of eugenics. [[Winston Churchill]] supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organization. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty.<ref name ="Blom 2008">{{cite book |last=Blom |first=Philipp |author-link=Philipp Blom |title=The Vertigo Years: Change and Culture in the West, 1900–1914 |date=2008 |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |location=Toronto |isbn=9780771016301 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/335 335–336] |url= https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/335}}</ref><ref>Jones, S. (1995). ''The Language of Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present and Future'' (New York: Anchor).</ref><ref>King, D. (1999). ''In the name of liberalism: illiberal social policy in Britain and the United States'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press).</ref>

As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted<ref>{{cite book |last=Ridley |first=Matt |author-link=Matt Ridley |title=Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965213677 |url-access=limited |date=1999 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=9780060894085 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965213677/page/290 290]–291}}</ref> various eugenics policies, including: [[genetic screening]]s, [[birth control]], promoting differential birth rates, [[Marriage law#Marriage restrictions|marriage restrictions]], segregation (both [[racial segregation]] and sequestering the mentally ill), [[compulsory sterilization]], [[forced abortion]]s or [[forced pregnancies]], ultimately culminating in [[genocide]]. By 2014, gene selection (rather than "people selection") was made possible through advances in [[genome editing]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Reis |first1=Alex |last2=Hornblower |first2=Breton |last3=Robb |first3=Brett |last4=Tzertzinis |first4=George |date=2014 |title=CRISPR/Cas9 and Targeted Genome Editing: A New Era in Molecular Biology |url= https://www.neb.com/tools-and-resources/feature-articles/crispr-cas9-and-targeted-genome-editing-a-new-era-in-molecular-biology |journal=NEB Expressions |issue=I |access-date=8 July 2015 |archive-date=23 June 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150623030918/https://www.neb.com/tools-and-resources/feature-articles/crispr-cas9-and-targeted-genome-editing-a-new-era-in-molecular-biology |url-status=live}}</ref> leading to what is sometimes called ''[[new eugenics]]'', also known as "neo-eugenics", "consumer eugenics", or "liberal eugenics"; which focuses on individual freedom and allegedly pulls away from racism, sexism or a focus on intelligence.<ref>{{Citation |last=Goering |first=Sara |title=Eugenics |date=2014 |url= https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/eugenics/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Fall 2014 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=4 May 2022 |archive-date=7 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201107184738/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/eugenics/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Early opposition====
Early critics of the philosophy of eugenics included the American sociologist [[Lester Frank Ward]],<ref>{{cite book |first=Joan |last=Ferrante |title=Sociology: A Global Perspective |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=AwnIIXI6y38C&pg=PA259 |date=2010 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=9780840032041 |pages=259 ff |access-date=7 June 2020 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200801114104/https://books.google.com/books?id=AwnIIXI6y38C&pg=PA259 |url-status=live}}</ref> the English writer [[G. K. Chesterton]], and Scottish tuberculosis pioneer and author [[Halliday Sutherland]].{{efn|note=Sutherland|He had identified eugenicists as a major obstacle to the eradication and cure of tuberculosis in his 1917 address "Consumption: Its Cause and Cure",<ref>"Consumption: Its Cause and Cure" – an address by Dr Halliday Sutherland on 4 September 1917, published by the Red Triangle Press.</ref>}} Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics", Chesterton's 1917 book [[s:Eugenics and other Evils|''Eugenics and Other Evils'']],<ref name="Chesterton22">{{cite book |last=Chesterton| first=G. K.|author-link=G. K. Chesterton |title=Eugenics and Other Evils |date=1922 |publisher=Cassell and Company |url= https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/25308}}</ref> and [[Franz Boas]]' 1916 article "[[s:Eugenics|Eugenics]]" (published in ''[[The Scientific Monthly]]'')<ref>{{cite book |last=Turda |first=Marius |chapter=Race, Science and Eugenics in the Twentieth Century |editor1-last=Bashford |editor1-first=Alison |editor2-last=Levine |editor2-first=Philippa |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2010 |isbn=9780199888290 |pages=72–73}}</ref> were all harshly critical of the rapidly growing movement.

Several biologists were also antagonistic to the eugenics movement, including [[Lancelot Hogben]].<ref>"Lancelot Hogben, who developed his critique of eugenics and distaste for racism in the period...he spent as Professor of Zoology at the University of Cape Town".  Alison Bashford and Philippa Levine, ''The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics''. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2010 {{ISBN|0199706530}} (p. 200)</ref> Other biologists who were themselves eugenicists, such as [[J. B. S. Haldane]] and [[Ronald Fisher|R. A. Fisher]], however, also expressed skepticism in the belief that sterilization of "defectives" (i.e. a purely negative eugenics) would lead to the disappearance of undesirable genetic traits.<ref>"Whatever their disagreement on the numbers, Haldane, Fisher, and most geneticists could support Jennings's warning: To encourage the expectation that the sterilization of defectives will solve the problem of hereditary defects, close up the asylums for feebleminded and insane, do away with prisons, is only to subject society to deception". Daniel J. Kevles (1985). ''In the Name of Eugenics''. University of California Press. {{ISBN|0520057635}} (p. 166).</ref>

Among institutions, the [[Catholic Church]] opposes sterilization for eugenic purposes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Congar |first=Yves M.-J. |authorlink=Yves Congar |date=1953 |title=The Catholic Church and the Race Question |url= http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000028/002893eo.pdf |location=Paris |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=3 July 2015 |pages= 22–24|archive-date=4 July 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150704070018/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000028/002893eo.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Attempts by the Eugenics Education Society to persuade the British government to legalize voluntary sterilization were opposed by Catholics and by the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Ml4vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics |first1=Alison |last1=Bashford |first2=Philippa |last2=Levine |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |via=Google Books |isbn=9780195373141 |access-date=31 December 2018 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200801110400/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ml4vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Society for Biodemography and Social Biology|American Eugenics Society]] initially gained some Catholic supporters, but Catholic support declined following the 1930 papal encyclical ''[[Casti connubii]]''.<ref name="Baker 2014 pp. 281–302" /> In this, [[Pope Pius XI]] explicitly condemned sterilization laws: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-connubii_en.html |title=Casti connubii |author=Pope Pius XI |access-date=15 March 2020 |archive-date=10 April 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090410192842/http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-connubii_en.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The eugenicists' political successes in [[Germany]] and [[Scandinavia]] were not at all matched in such countries as [[Poland]] and [[Czechoslovakia]], even though measures had been proposed there, largely because of the Catholic church's moderating influence.<ref>[[Roll-Hansen, Nils]] (1988). "The Progress of Eugenics: Growth of Knowledge and Change in Ideology." ''History of Science'', xxvi, 295-331.</ref>

===Concerns over human devolution===
{{Fin de siecle sidebar}}

====Dysgenics====
{{excerpt|Dysgenics|hat=yes}}

=== Eugenic feminism ===
{{Excerpt|Eugenic feminism}}

===North American eugenics===
{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=300
| image1 = Henry H. Goddard.jpg 
| image2 = Madison Grant.jpg
| image3 = Lothrop Stoddard.JPG
| image4 = Jack London young.jpg
| footer = American eugenicists generally pursued more public-facing work and accordingly became widely known for their racism ''in particular.'' Along these lines, they were often harshly criticized by their British counterparts.<ref>Heron, D. (9 November 1913). "English expert attacks American eugenic work", ''New York Times'', part V, 1</ref>
}}
{{Excerpt|Eugenics in the United States|files=no}}

====Eugenics in Mexico====
{{Excerpt|Eugenics in Mexico}}
{{Excerpt|Eugenics in Mexico#Neo-Lamarckian eugenics|hat=no}}

===Nazism and the decline of eugenics ===
{{See also|Nazi eugenics|Racial hygiene|Life unworthy of life|Scientific racism}}
[[File:Alkoven Schloss Hartheim 2005-08-18 3589.jpg|thumb|left|[[Schloss Hartheim]], a former center for Nazi Germany's [[Aktion T4]] campaign]]
The reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when [[Ernst Rüdin]] used eugenics as a justification for the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|racial policies of Nazi Germany]]. [[Adolf Hitler]] had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in {{lang|de|[[Mein Kampf]]}} in 1925 and emulated eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been pioneered in the United States once he took power.{{sfn|Black|2003|pp=274–295}} Some common early 20th century eugenics methods involved identifying and classifying individuals and their families. This included [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial groups]] (such as the [[Romani people|Roma]] and [[Jews in Nazi Germany]]), the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, [[promiscuous women]], and homosexuals as "degenerate" or "unfit". This led to segregation, institutionalization, sterilization, and [[mass murder]].{{sfn|Black|2003}} The Nazi policy of identifying German citizens deemed unfit and then systematically killing them with poison gas, referred to as the [[Aktion T4]] campaign, paved the way for the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2010 |isbn=9780192804365 |pages=179–191}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Burleigh |first=Michael |title=Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2000 |isbn=0415150361 |editor-last=Bartov |editor-first=Omer |location=London |pages=43–57 |chapter=Psychiatry, German Society, and the Nazi "Euthanasia" Programme}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |date=2010 |isbn=9781441761460 |location=New York |pages=256–258}}</ref>
{{quote box|quote="All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and [[human cloning]] shall be prohibited."|source=[[Hungarian Constitution]]<ref>[[Constitution of Hungary]] (2011),  [https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Hungary_2011.pdf Section 3, ''Freedom and Responsibility'', Article III (3).]</ref>|bgcolor=Cornsilk|width=30%|align=right|salign=right}}
By the end of [[World War II]], many eugenics laws were abandoned, having become associated with [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Black">{{cite book |last=Black |first=Edwin |author-link=Edwin Black |title=War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race |publisher=Four Walls Eight Windows |date=2003 |isbn=9781568582580 |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781568582580}}</ref> [[H. G. Wells]], who had called for "the sterilization of failures" in 1904,<ref name="jt">{{cite book |first=Jacky |last=Turner |title=Animal Breeding, Welfare and Society |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2010 |isbn=9781844075898 |page=296}}</ref> stated in his 1940 book ''The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting For?'' that among the human rights, which he believed should be available to all people, was "a prohibition on [[mutilation]], sterilization, [[torture]], and any bodily punishment".<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Clapham |title=Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2007 |isbn=9780199205523 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/humanrights00andr/page/29 29–31] |url= https://archive.org/details/humanrights00andr/page/29}}</ref> After World War II, the practice of "imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a national, ethnical, racial or religious] group" fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]].<ref>Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with [[Genocide#Crime|the intent to destroy, in whole or in part]], a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such as:
* Killing members of the group;
* Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
* Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
* Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
* Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
See the [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]].</ref> The [[Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union]] also proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Union |title=Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union |at=Article 3, Section 2 |access-date=17 September 2013 |archive-date=26 October 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131026133612/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Union |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== In Singapore ===
{{Main|Population control in Singapore#Demographic transition and the Graduate Mothers Scheme}}
[[Lee Kuan Yew]], the [[Founding Father|founding father]] of [[Singapore]], actively promoted eugenics as late as 1983.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chan |first=Ying-kit |date=4 October 2016 |title=Eugenics in Postcolonial Singapore |url=http://www.blynkt.com/issue-1/eugenics-in-postcolonial-singapore |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008232753/http://www.blynkt.com/issue-1/eugenics-in-postcolonial-singapore |archive-date=8 October 2017 |access-date=19 October 2017 |website=Blynkt.com |location=Berlin}}</ref> In 1984, Singapore began providing financial incentives to highly educated women to encourage them to have more children. For this purpose was introduced the "Graduate Mother Scheme" that incentivized graduate women to get married as much as the rest of their populace.<ref>See Diane K. Mauzy; Robert Stephen Milne, ''Singapore politics under the People's Action Party'' (Routledge, 2002).</ref> The incentives were extremely unpopular and regarded as eugenic, and were seen as discriminatory towards Singapore's non-Chinese ethnic population. In 1985, the incentives were partly abandoned as ineffective, while the government matchmaking agency, the [[Social Development Network]], remains active.<ref name="LOC1989">{{cite web |title=Singapore: Population Control Policies |url=http://www.photius.com/countries/singapore/society/singapore_society_population_control_p~11008.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411115633/http://www.photius.com/countries/singapore/society/singapore_society_population_control_p~11008.html |archive-date=11 April 2011 |access-date=11 August 2011 |work=Library of Congress Country Studies (1989) |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref><ref name="natgeo">{{Cite magazine |last=Jacobson |first=Mark |date=January 2010 |title=The Singapore Solution |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220125820/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text/5 |archive-date=20 December 2009 |access-date=26 December 2009 |magazine=[[National Geographic Magazine]]}}</ref><ref name="pushingforbabies">{{cite news |last=Webb |first=Sara |date=26 April 2006 |title=Pushing for babies: S'pore fights fertility decline |url=http://www.singapore-window.org/sw06/060426re.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716052445/http://www.singapore-window.org/sw06/060426re.htm |archivedate=16 July 2011 |access-date=15 July 2024 |work=Singapore Window |agency=Reuters}}</ref>