Editing Eugenics (section)

=== 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>