Transcript US Eugenic

Eugenics: the “well-born” science
Joanne Woiak
[email protected]
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Science of eugenics: genetic determinism
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Disabilities and “social ills” are inheritable traits.
Medical model (and moral).
Policies: “rationally” improve human biological quality
by controlling who reproduces
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Scientific knowledge applied to “better breeding.”
Fewer offspring from “unfit” people; more from “fit.”
What kinds of people do we want? Who should we
prevent from being born?
Eugenics movement, 1900-1945
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Word coined by Francis Galton 1860s.
30+ countries had their own versions.
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Organizations of social reformers, biologists,
doctors, other professional experts.
Politically and scientifically “progressive.”
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Apply the new science of human genetics to
control/engineer population health & fitness.
Economic rationale: reduce the “burden” of
welfare services, increase efficiency.
Sources: Image Archive on the
American Eugenics Movement
http://eugenicsarchive.org
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Hosted by the Human Genome Project’s
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Which was originally the Eugenics
Record Office, the center of US human
genetics research and advocacy for
eugenics policy, 1910-1939.
How to improve the hereditary
make-up of the “race”?
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Positive eugenics
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Encourage “fitter” people to have more
kids who share their “good” genes.
Negative eugenics
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Persuade, pressure, or compel “unfit”
people not to pass on “defective” genes.
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Permanent segregation.
Forced sterilization.
Most extreme: eugenics in
Nazi Germany
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1933 Forced sterilization law applied to
400,000 “hereditary defectives.”
1939 Killing programs (“euthanasia”) against
200,000 institutionalized adults and children
with disabilities.
 Economic logic: “lives not worth living,”
“useless eaters”
1941 Gas chambers from that program
moved to the concentration camps to murder
6 million Jewish people.
Negative eugenics in US: 30 states
had sterilization laws by 1930s
60,000 legally sterilized 1907-1970s
How much does “degeneracy” cost society? Who is
“born to be a burden” as a criminal, feebleminded, etc?
State fair exhibit promoting eugenics.
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Eliminate all inherited
and congenital
disabilities, e.g.
“results of conception
when the father was
intoxicated.”
Good heredity for the sake of
“health”
Hereditary defective groups invading
the body politic
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“Infectious germs”:
symbols for Jews,
communists, gays.
“With his poison, the
Jew destroys the
sluggish blood of
weaker peoples; so that
a diagnosis arises, of
swift degeneration.
With us, however, the
case is different: The
blood is pure; we are
healthy!”
Racist agenda & outcome of US
eugenics: 1924 Immigration Act
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Eugenicists’ expert
testimony on race & IQ.
Law set quotas for
Eastern and Southern
European immigrants.
Disability justified
discriminatory policies
since 1882, excluded
undesirable “lunatics,”
“idiots,” “likely to become
a public charge.”
Congressman Albert Johnson,
R-WA, 1924 speech
“With this immigration act, the US is
undertaking to regulate and control the great
problem of the commingling of races. Our
hope is in a homogeneous nation. At one
time we welcomed all and all helped to build
the nation. But now asylum ends. This nation
must be as completely unified as any nation
in Europe or Asia. Self-preservation demands
it.”
1913 Ellis Island mental testing
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“moron detectors”
80% immigrants scored
feebleminded
Deportation rate
increased
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1918 IQ tests
US Army
For recruits who were
non-English speaking
or illiterate.
Complete the picture.
40% found to be FM.
Actual Test Questions, Army Alpha
SAMPLE People hear with their
eyes\ears\nose\mouth
1. Pinochle is played with
rackets\cards\pins\dice
2. Habeus corpus is a term used in
medicine\law\pedagogy
3. Bud Fisher is a famous
actor\author\athlete\comic
4. Velvet Joe appears in ads for
tooth powder\soap\dry goods\tobacco
5. The number of a Kaffir’s legs is . . . 2\4\6\8
WWI Army Mental Tests: Racial Rankings
Positive eugenics:
Fitter Families contests and the Cross of
Honor of the German Mother
US Eugenic “Euthanasia”
and Disability
1917 eugenic film The Black Stork:
“There are times when saving a life
is a greater crime than taking one.”
1927 retitled “Are You Fit to Marry?”
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Haiselden’s autobio:
“We have been
invaded. Our streets are
infested with an Army
of the Unfit—a
dangerous, vicious army
of death and dread....
Horrid semi-humans
drag themselves along
our streets.... What are
you doing to do about
it?”
Negative eugenics
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“Voluntary” measures
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Eugenic education, propaganda aimed at
general public, e.g. school textbooks, films,
state fair exhibits.
Coercive policies
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Permanent confinement in institutions.
Surgical sterilization, sometimes as
condition for parole.
Who was targeted as “unfit”?
Charles Davenport, head of the Eugenics
Record Office, the scientific branch of the US
movement:
“It is a reproach to our intelligence that
we as a people should have to support
about half a million insane, feebleminded,
epileptic, blind and deaf; 80,000 prisoners
and 100,000 paupers at a cost of over
100 million dollars per year.”
Alexander Graham Bell
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1872 founds deaf school
in Boston.
Invents devices to aid
hearing.
Studies heredity in deaf
families.
1883: “avoid creating a
deaf-mute variety of the
human race” by
intermarriages.
Becomes leader of
eugenics movement.
Perkins School for the Blind:
1928 family pedigree and expenses
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1921 legislation
inspired by
hereditarian beliefs:
prevent marriages
of blind people.