Editing Eugenics (section)

====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>