Eugenics aimed to improve hereditary traits through selective breeding. It encompassed positive eugenics, encouraging reproduction among the genetically fit, and negative eugenics, which sought to restrict reproduction among those deemed unfit. The eugenics movement gained acceptance in the early 20th century in both the US and UK due to fears over poverty, immigration, and the lower classes outbreeding the elite. By the 1920s, over 30 US states had passed involuntary sterilization laws targeting those with disabilities or low IQs. However, the eugenics movement declined after World War 2 due to its association with the Nazi regime and discrimination.

1. Eugenics
Karen Aderer, University of Southern
Mississippi

2. Why are ethics and values so
important in our profession?

3. Definition of Eugenics
• The science of using controlled, selective
breeding to improve hereditary qualities of
the human race
• Eugenic theory encompassed both
– Positive eugenics – encouraging repro of those genetically fit
– Negative eugenics – aims to prevent those deemed
physically, mentally or morally unfit to procreate
• Generally by sterilization or segregation

4. • It is true that the right to beget children is a natural and
constitutional right, but it is equally true that no citizen
has any rights superior to the common welfare. Acting
for the public good, the State, in the exercise of its police
powers, may always impose reasonable restrictions upon
the natural and constitutional rights of its citizens.
Measured by its injurious effect upon society, what right
has any citizen or class of citizens to beget children with
an inherited tendency to crime, feeble-minded, idiocy or
imbecility? This is the right for which Willie Smith is here
contending….Under the existing circumstances it was not
only its undoubted right, but it was its duty to enact
some legislation that would protect the people and
preserve the race from the known effects of the
procreation of children by the feeble-minded, the idiots
and the imbeciles (Smith v. Wayne Probate Judge, 1925)

5. Francis Galton
• “Father” of Eugenics
• English Scientist in late 1800’s
• Chose Greek word “eugenes” meaning “noble
birth”
• Inspired by Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
• Believed biology responsible for not just
physical characteristics but mental as well

6. Political and Social Climate
• Britain – Mid to late 1800’s
– Fear of education of the lower classes
In Britain and US – late 1800’s – early 1900’s:
High Birth Rate
Fears of “overbreeding” of lower classes
Problems of Poverty
Interbreeding with Immigrants

7. The American Eugenics movement
• Stemmed from Social Darwinism and Galton’s
ideas
• At height in the 1920’s
• Many became convinced that traits like
intelligence, sexual orientation and criminality
were caused by bad blood

8. Widespread Acceptance of Eugenics
• Charles Darwin, Alexander Graham
Bell, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt
• John Harvey Kellogg:
– “I wish we had the power to do that very thing….it
certainly would be a great deal better than to
have the U.S. a great stock farm, breeding
mongrels – which is what we are doing now”

9. Eugenics Movement
• US Supreme Court ruled in favor of involuntary
sterilization laws for inmates in mental instit in 1927
• By 1941 – 33 states had laws pertaining to the
handicapped, convicts and “degenerates”
• Foreign born, African Americans and Mexicans all
operated on at disproportionate rates
• Impoverished women receiving public assistance
were told they would have to undergo sterilization to
continue to receive benefits

10. What does all this have to do with
Social Work?

11. Fitter Family Contests
• Example of positive Eugenics
• Purpose: To encourage the fit to
reproduce, raise racial consciousness, bring
public awareness to the eugenics agenda and
emphasize the value of marriage and the
family
• Took place in “human stock” sections of fair
• Also “Better Babies” contests

12. Fitter Family Contest: Kansas State Fair

16. Fitter Family Contests
• Different Categories
• Judged on physical, mental, moral traits
• Examined by doctors, historians, social
workers, dentists, etc.
• Grades given to each member along with
examination record
• Copy sent to Eugenics Records Office

18. Fitter Family Medal

19. Negative Eugenics – Forced Sterilizations
• Hoped to curtail problems of mental
illness, crime, low IQ
• US Supreme Court ruled in favor of for
inmates in mental institutions (1927)
• By 1941, 33 states had laws pertaining to
handicapped, ‘feeble-minded’ convicts and
‘degenerates’

20. Stanford Binet IQ Test
• Lewis Terman
It is safe to predict that in the near future intelligence tests will
bring tens of thousands of these high-grade defectives under
the surveillance and protection of society. This will ultimately
result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and
in the elimination of an enormous amount of
crime, pauperism and industrial inefficiency….
Not all criminals are feeble-minded but all feeble-minded are at
least potential criminals. That every feeble-minded woman is
a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by
anyone….considering the tremendous cost of vice and crime it
is evident that psychological testing has found here one of its
richest applications. (Terman, 1916)

21. Sterilizations
• California study (Popenoe)
– Immigrants, African Americans and Mexicans all
operated on disproportionately
– Most in either working or lower middle class
– Early 20’s and younger
– Listed as: schizophrenia, epilepsy, mental
deficiency, promiscuousness, masturbators, havin
g child out of wedlock
– Frequently tied to benefits

22. Nazis and Eugenics
• Nazi Hereditary Health courts
• Eugenic Sterilization Law
– Compulsary sterilizations of all citizens with
hereditary afflictions
• Blindness, deafness, physical deformities
• Rassen-hygiene led to genocide

23. Eugenics in America after Nazi Era
• Eye-opening for Americans as to dangers of
Eugenics
• Dampening effect
• Sterilization laws stayed on books in some
states until 1979

33. Relevancy of Eugenics Today
• Human Genome Mapping Project
• Identify markers for congenital defects such as
Down Syndrome and cystic fibrosis and future
vulnerabilities (cancer, diabetes)
• Identify markers for personality traits
• Lazy monkeys / monogamous
voles/homosexual mice
• Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis – only
wealthy can afford

34. Discrimination
• C.R.A.C.K. (1999)
– Monetary rewards for sterilization and long term
birth control for crack addicts
– African Americans disproportionately represented
at 33.3% when only 12-13% of population
– Based upon myth of “crack babies

35. C.R.A.C.K. Flyer

36. • Paul Gray – Time Magazine – “Cursed by Eugenics”
– “The rise and fall of the theory known as eugenics is in
every respect a cautionary tale. The early eugenicists were
usually well-meaning and progressive types. They had
imbibed their Darwin and decided that the process of
natural selection would improve if it were guided by
human intelligence. They did not know they were shaping
a rationale for atrocities.”