Eugenics

page of a pamphlet describing the lectures of Albert Wiggan on Eugenics. Courtesy of the Special Collections Department, University of Iowa Libraries

Eugenics was the general name for a series of supposedly scientific claims about inheritance among humans, which sought to eliminate traits, such as "imbecility" or criminal behavior, by selective sterilization, regulation of family size, and restrictions on who could marry whom. It was based upon a number of false premises:

• That "imbecility" -- a catch-all phrase used to label many persons without anything that today would be recognized as mental illness or deficiency -- was necessarily the result of inheritance, and heritable.

• That human "races" as a category were substantial and determinative, and that certain races, such as the "Anglo Saxon," were innately superior to others.

• That "nervous exhaustion", "moral looseness" and other socaially-acquired traits were inherited and heritable.

• That families with more children dispersed and diluted the "moral force" of each offspring.

• That immigrant children were less desireable, and that the "white race" or the native-born American were endangered due to lower fertility rate.

• That "genius" was readily identified, inherited, and heritable.

The banner of eugenics was taken up by a variety of groups which argued that it would lead to the creation of healthier, more intelligent people, to conserve society's limited resources, and reduce human suffering. Of course, one of the unspoken aspects of this "reduction" in suffering was that it worked, not by reducing suffering per se, but by reducing the number of people through forced sterilization -- fewer people, ergo, less suffering. Many women were sterilized involuntarily and without their knowledge under Eugenics laws which were passed in many states of the United States throughout the nineteen-teens and twenties.