Lecture 8: The Eugenics Movement

Eugenics

- Coined by Francis Galton -means noble in heredity -The "science" of improving human stock by giving "the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable."

The Progressive Rationale for Eugenics

-"We are conquering the science of human heredity" -"All kinds of social problems and moral deficits—criminality, feeblemindedness, prostitution, alcoholism, rebelliousness—are transmitted from one generation to the next" -"We can therefore conclude that these problems must be due to defective germplasm" -"If we can prevent these transmissions, we can make the world a better place...and save money on police, health care, education, putting down rebellions etc." -Better Babies! ("Positive") Sterilize! ("Negative")

Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia

-1958: Mildred Jeter marries Richard Loving in DC -After moving to Virginia, they are indicted under the Racial Integrity Act -They plead guilty and are sentenced to one year; sentence is suspended -The Virginia Supreme Court upholds the decision -The Lovings appeal to SCOTUS, which strikes down the decision in 1967 - No miscegenation allowed

Buck vs. Bell

-Carrie Buck and mother Emma committed to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded -Both judged to be "feebleminded" and promiscuous -ERO testified that Carrie's 7-month-old daughter "showed backwardness" -SCOTUS, 1927: sterilized Carrie Buck so that no more generations of "feebleminded" people would be born -Carrie Buck was raped -Vivian Buck was on honor roll -Laughlin never met Carrie, but still sent deposition -Defense lawyer conspired against her

Eugenic "science"

-Charles Davenport gave US eugenics scientific cover. "His enthusiasm outstripped the evidence." -Eugenicists liked the scientific veneer of mendelism -Attempted to fit complex traits into recessive, dominant and sex-linked modes of inheritance -Collected data from circuses, insane asylums, prisons, orphanages, homes for the blind -Davenport published a study claiming that sailors shared a "sex limited" (X-linked) allele for "thalassophilia," aka "love of the sea"

The Case of Hermann Muller

-Despised poor science and social prejudices -1930s: US to Germany to USSR 1935: Out of the Night: A Biologist's View of the Future -"Humanity interfering with natural selection" -In 1950 address to the American Society of Human Genetics, he openly worried about "our mutational load."

Support from the mainstream

-F.W. Mott, psychiatrist -1912: First International Eugenics Congress -Organized by Leonard Darwin, son of Charles -Attendees included Osler, Churchill -Eugenicists included Galton, East, Davenport, Pearson, Fisher, Muller, Haldane

Francis Galton (1822-1911)

-Lived in a pre-Mendelian world Animals and plants could be bred to specifications -"Could not the race of men be similarly improved?" -Claimed that heredity governed physical features, talent and character -Imagined producing "a highly gifted race of men by judicious marriages" -1869: Hereditary Genius

Eugenics' fatal flaws

-Poorly defined traits: "intelligence," "feeblemindedness," "manic depression" -Reification: treating complex traits as if they were one-dimensional, e.g., intelligence rather than intelligences -Poor research methods: incomplete survey data, bias, self-reported data -False quantification: attach a number to something and it becomes valid -Social and environmental factors: "thalassophilia," "poverty" -The Carnegie Institution closes the ERO in 1939

Essential Elements of Eugenics

-Presumption of a "problem," e.g., "degradation" of gene pool and corresponding desirable traits -"Problem" requires a systematic social/governmental "solution" -Applies to a population rather than an individual -Requires the subordination of the wishes and problems, especially reproductive ones, of the population in question, in favor of the wishes of the broader population and/or state -Coercion, e.g., segregation, sterilization, extermination -Economic and social encouragement of desirables

Social Darwinism

-The acceptance of Galtonian ideas -"We now know, through the admirable labours of Mr. Galton, that genius...tends to be inherited." -Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871 -"Survival of the fittest" But... -By the dawn of the 20th-century Social Darwinism was failing

Social Darwinism Selected Against..?

-The working class was organizing and making demands of the ruling class -The wealthy and powerful exhibited a declining birthrate -The poor were out-reproducing the wealthy -Charity, social services and religious institutions had a limited ability to ameliorate the lot of the poor -Enter Progressivism: boundless faith in science to solve social problems

Precipitating factors, past and future

Advances in technology Surreptitious DNA sampling: possible and legal in the US! Biobanking Hacking Doctor and scientist behavior Commercial, funding, status incentives Willingness to distort/falsify evidence Willingness to ignore/tolerate/facilitate suffering: people as "problems" Social and political factors Technological advancement + totalitarian rule State-sponsored linkage of population groups to social problems China?

"Law of the People's Republic of China on Maternal and Infant Care"

have premarital health examinations and based on the results the doctor can postpone the marriage or voluntarily take long-acting contraceptive measures or undergo ligature operations;

What Buck v. Bell Wrought

-1920s-1970s: 65,000 American involuntarily sterilized (including 7600 North Carolinians) -Harry Laughlin: emboldened propagandist -1933: Nazis borrow Laughlin's "model law" to justify sterilization of 350,000 -1936: Laughlin receives honorary doctorate in Heidelberg for his work in "the science of racial cleansing." -Buck v. Bell precedent has never been overruled

Immigration and Eugenics

-1924: Laughlin testifies before Congress in support of restrictive immigration bill -The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 is designed to stem the tide of "dysgenic" Italians, Chinese and Eastern European Jews -President Coolidge, upon signing the bill into law: "America must remain American"

US Eugenics: Context

-19th century: Rapid growth of US industry -Mechanization of agriculture -Systematic exploitation of labor -Concomitant rise in unions -Rising tide of immigration peaking in 1910s-1920s

Eugenics in Nazi Germany

-Hitler reads Human Heredity, which includes section of racial superiority -No democratic checks: the banality of evil -"Law for the prevention of progeny with hereditary defects" passed in 1933 -Blood and organs from Auschwitz prisoners (Hallervorden and Spatz) -Most perpetrators restored to their posts after the war

Negative Eugenics

-the decreasing of undesirable or harmful genetic traits through sterilization.