Why does no one ever speak of Eugenics?

Question

Eugenics was created by Francis Galton; in which the best humans beings were not breeding as fast as the inferior ones: foreigners, immigrants, Jews, degenerates, the unfit, and the "feeble minded" were causing a crisis in the gene pool, leading to the deterioration of the human race. But his theory was taken far beyond its original intention. His "theory" was adopted by Americans, and was promoted by the likes of H.G. Wells, Theodore Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Luther Burbank, George Bernard Shaw...research was funded by the Carnegie Foundation, in the U.S...It moved to Germany, and was funded there, by the Rockefeller Foundation, up through 1939...The Germans were very good at it...They set up houses where "mental defectives" were interviewed, than led to the back, and killed via carbon monoxide gas, in the back room, and then their bodies were cremated in another structure, on the property...Eventually, that was expanded into various concentration camps. But it all started here.

Answer 1

I would argue that eugenics are still being practiced today by the medical community. This being done primarily to elderly people who no longer have money to pay for long term care, and to people who are younger who again don't have the money or insurance to cover a traumatic injury.

My nephew only lived 30 days because his parents didn't have medical insurance, had they had it he would've been born a normal child.

$$$$$ = life?

They'll bleed all your money out of you & if you can't pay them any more, they'll kill you, or withhold treatment, as an "act of mercy", but in reality it is an act of greed.

Why don't people talk about it? They get into moral areas that they don't want to trouble their happy little hearts about.

Answer 2

You are obviously very aware of why eugenics has gotten a bad name - because some groups chose to kill for it, and on rather specious bases. The Nazis, for example, wanted to wipe out all the Jews and Roma... but is it really accurate to say that NONE of these people have any valuable traits? I don't think such a position could reasonably be defended.

Of course, there have been other communities that have tried using the opposite means - encouraging the production of 'desirable' people rather than eliminating the 'undesirable' ones. These have had a rather different problem. How to keep such a planned community on course over generations and generations? None have yet succeeded.

But none of the above invalidates the concept. People still do talk of eugenics, though most are not interested in replicating atrocities of the past. I suspect you'll see a different kind of resurgence when genetic engineering becomes much more accessible. What person WOULDN'T want to secure for himself (or his children) natural advantages if he could?

Nor need we even wait that long. It has been observed that people tend to marry those of equivalent intelligence. If intelligence has any genetic components, we would then expect over enough time a sort of broadening of intellect and perhaps even a separation into two groups... a gap instead of a continuum. We'll just have to wait and see.

Answer 3

Eugenics was still practiced here in the USA till the late 1970. The murder methods are insane. I was one of the recipients of the action. I was given the operation so I would not reproduce due to the fact my IQ was low. UCLA hospital was were it was done at as they were particpants in the Eugenics project. Am I angry about this? No I went through alot of hardship at school so I dont want my kids to go through same.

What alot of people do not know is that IQ can be raised. I was an F student in grade school and now I attend a private college where my grade is a B and on the deans list.

Interesting question you had.

Answer 4

I think there's some truth to the idea. In the natural state, adversity pares the population down pretty severely. This, with enthusiastic reproduction by the survivors, is the mechanism by which most species maintain their fit to the environment around them.

Obviously the process is much "impaired" in the modern industrial state.

The problem with the idea of eugenics is, it isn't practical to have some human institution deciding who will live or die or reproduce. People are funny that way.

I don't think the human race is ultimately in danger of eliminating natural adversity and drastic reductions in its numbers due to same, though.

More likely, the current state of high living standards for huge numbers of people will rather turn out to be transient, unsustainable on the practical level, in the long run.

You might say, the mill of nature turns in its own time.

Answer 5

Your question maybe is asking why we talk about (or teach in schools) nazi germany and the concentration camps, but we do not talk of Eugenics? I think perhaps as you get older you will be surprised at how so very much is left out of our history classes, and with fewer people continuing education, some people just don't know where to look for information, especially information they have never heard of before. I, myself, had never heard of Eugenics until you told me just now, and I'm 31! Excuse me as I go research it.

Answer 6

Eugenics is a pseudo-science, much in the way phenology is a pseudo-science. There is no concrete scientific basis for its theory of inferior races. If Stephen Hawking were given a 19th century IQ test in the 19th century, he would most certainly have failed, and probably been sterilized. Obviously, he is not 'feeble-minded'. The worst part about 19th century Eugenics is that it started with a conclusion - that white Europeans are superior to all others, and constructed its 'experiments' to support that conclusion. Eugenics IS talked about today still, in Philosophy of Science courses (one of which I took as an undergrad), to show how pseudo-science and ideology can be used as a powerful and insidious (sp?) weapon

Answer 7

Where is the question? Who is to say who is inferior. In grade school Einstein was considered retarded because he didn't read well. Helen Keller, just a start. Elitism is always small minded. Hillary Clinton is a good example of elitism, she does criminal things, because in her mind she is a superior human being and above the law. A really superior human being is usually a very good person. W hen you try to make a flawless human being, you end up with the most flawed product ever. Flaw is part of our perfection.

Answer 8

No one here wants to talk about Eugenics because of two reasons. 1) Its not really a philosophical subject. And 2) It will inevitably lead to the mentioning of Nazis. Nazis always end Internet conversations.

Answer 9

This kind of discussion is exactly like Abortion Heated opinions on both sides to the point that they'd actually come to blows. Personally & its ONLY personally I don't believe any race is superior to other races I don't believe we are better than the handicapped or mentally ill. My Dad taught me that he was tolerant.

Answer 10

In a way, eugenics is still practiced in the USA today. In our health care system if you don't have money, you don't get the best care and feeding, thus the incompetents in this regard are left to die in alleys, doorways, nursing homes and hospices.