Social Origins of Eugenics
What are the origins and social implications of eugenisicm? Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, first used the term 'Eugenics' in his book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Development published in 1883.The word Eugenics is described as 'the science of improving the population by controlled breeding for desirable inherited characteristics' and comes from the Greek for 'good breeding' or 'good life'. Although Galton initially studied medicine, he later chose to study mathematics and he also became a fervent advocate of social policies which encouraged supposedly superior beings to have children and discouraged 'lesser' people from doing so. Galton first became interested in Eugenics after reading Darwin's The Origin of Species. In the book, successful breeding is judged by the
Galton wasn't just merely interested in the subject though. They were also blamed for Britain's failure to maintain it's economic supremacy and the lack of recruits entering the army. Galton wrote two books- Hereditary Genius (1869) and Natural Inheritance (1889). He examined the family trees of various families of importance and recorded the occurrence of men appearing in the same 'lines'. Because the Eugenicists believed that the residuum were a hereditary group they argued that controlling them through scientific methods was a more modernised version of natural selection and they thought they would be making a breakthrough by using artificial selection. This was believed to have reduced the negative effects of crowded city life on people's health and mentality etc. What the Eugenicists found most disturbing was that the condition was though to be inheritable. However, based on this theory, it seemed to Galton that it was the 'inferior' people who had the largest amount of offspring and he thought that this seemed "to spoil and not improve our breed". In previous decades there was a large shift in population as people migrated into the countryside. He wholeheartedly believed that there should be a system put in place to iradicate, what was is his mind, the inferior race. number of offspring an organism produces. As a solution, The Eugenic Society suggested segregation of the mentally defective, alcoholics and chronic poor into institutions to prevent them from breeding and this was not seen as extreme. For example, in 1913 the Mental Deficiency Act allowed the 'compulsory detention of defectives' in whose case it is desirable in the interests of the community that they be deprived of the opportunity for procreating children. The main concerns for the Eugenicists was a group referred to as the 'residuum'.
Common topics in this essay:
Natural Inheritance,
Faculty Development,
Eugenic Society,
Origin Species,
Deficiency Act,
Surprisingly Governments,
,
Charles Darwin,
Galton Eugenics,
Francis Galton,
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