Evidence of a Eugenic Attitude
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'Imbeciles’ and ‘Illiberal Reformers’
by David Oshinsky
New York Times Review of Books, March 14, 2016
This is a review of two books
that provide a history of eugenics in America, including an
analysis of the infamous case of
Buck vs. Bell, a case
in
which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the forced
sterilization of those deemed to be unfit by a state did not
violate the Due Process
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to
the United States Constitution. The Leonard book also provides
an account of the perils of intellectual
arrogance in dealing
with the explosive social issues."
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To Defend the Disposable
George Weigel
First Things, 12/21/14
This is a brief article that talks about the underlying eugenic impulses of
some who support abortion. The author uses the example of
a paper published by the architect of the Affordable Care Act, Jonathan
Gruber, when he declares that legalized abortion saved
taxpayers $1.6 billion a year because those terminated before birth were
from social classes most likely to be welfare clients.
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Euthanasia is so Accepted that Doctors Must Now Justify Prolonging a
Life
Barbara Kay
The National Post, January 28, 2015
This article raises concerns about a change in attitudes in the
Netherlands ever since the adoption, in 2002, of the
Dutch Euthanasia Law which appears to represent a shift in the basis for
euthanasia from self-determination to
“better-off-dead” judgmentalism. The article includes a brief summary of a new
book by Dutch journalist Gerbert
van Loenen,
Do You Call
This a Life? Blurred Boundaries in the Netherlands’ Right-to-Die Laws. |
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Building a Better Human
Kate Luna,
Maclean’s, 10/15/13
This article provides a summary of exactly how much of the human body can be
created synthetically by current
laboratory techniques. |
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San Francisco supervisor argues sex-selective abortion ban discriminate against
Asian-American women,
Bay City News, 09/10/2014
This is a report of a recent attempt in California to ban abortions performed
solely on the basis of the sex of the child
and the opposition to such a ban. In doing so, it exposes the confrontation
between eugenic selection and so-called
“reproductive choice. |
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Christianity and Eugenics: The Place of Religion in the British Eugenics
Education Society and the American Eugenics Society,
c.1907–1940
Graham J. Baker,
The Social History of Medicine, May, 2014, 27(2) 271-302
This is a study of the impact of religious belief
on members of the major eugenics societies of the early 20th
century.
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The Genomic Revolution and Beliefs about Essential Racial Differences: A
Backdoor to Eugenics?
Jo C. Phelan, Bruce G. Link, Naumi M. Feldman,
The Social History of Medicine, April 1, 2013, 78(2) 167-191
There has been a steady stream of medical reports
in recent years concerning the increased susceptibility to certain diseases
because
of race (diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers). This article examines how
these reports have contributed to reinforcing racial
differences and the correlation between the central role beliefs in racial
difference play in racism as well as the consequences for the future. |
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Ethical Concerns About
Genetic Testing and Screening
Rosemarie Tong i
N C Med J. 2013 Nov-Dec;74(6):522-5
This article discussed concerns that the use of
reproductive genetic testing and other uses of genetic information could lead to
an acceptance of eugenics. |
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Avoiding genetic genocide: understanding good intentions and eugenics in the
complex dialogue between the medical
and disability communities.
Miller PS, Levine RL.
Genet Med. 2013 Feb;15(2):95-102.
This article examines what is meant by what is “best” for people with
disabilities. Eugenics campaigns, legal restrictions on reproductive and other
freedoms,
and prenatal testing recommendations predicated on the lesser worth of
persons with disabilities have all contributed toward the historic trauma
experienced
by the disability community, particularly with respect to medical
genetics. |
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Inquiry into Abortion on the Grounds of Disability – a chance to remove
discriminatory laws?
Christian Meican Felowship (CMF) Administration
CMG Blog. Org. UK
February 4, 2013
A parliamentary study group in England confronts
the inherent contradiction between the Abortion Control Act of 1969, which
allows abortion for fetal disability up to the moment of birth (if the child is
not disabled, the limit on abortion is 24 weeks), and
the Equality Act 2010, which protects disabled people from discrimination. |
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Clauberg's Eponym and Crimes against Humanity
Frederick Sweet, PhD and Rita M. Csapo-Sweet EdD,
Israel Medical Association Journal, Vol. 14, December, 2012
Provides an overview of the medical crimes against humanity perpetrated by
Dr. Carl Clauberg, who is best known for his cruel
and deathly sterilization experiments on women at the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Nazi concentration camp. |
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The Eugenic
Impulse
Nathaniel Comfort
The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2012
Reviews history of eugenics attempts leading up to current attempts to drive
human evolution. |
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Eugenics, Past and Future Op-Ed
Ross Douthat
New York Times Review, 6/9/12
The author poses the question of what use will be made of the newly discovered
method (mapping the entire fetal genome) of
obtaining comprehensive information an unborn child’s potential prospects. The
history of eugenics is mentioned as well as
the current history of dealing with fetal abnormalities, where 90% of children
diagnosed pre-birth with Down’s Syndrome are
aborted. |
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New Fetal Genetics Test: Less Risk, More Controversy
Dana Farrington
Health News
from NPR June 07, 2012
Article cites potential problems that may result from more accurate genetic
testing of unborn children, including leading some
parents to have abortions and others to creating “designer” babies. |
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a) Eugenics,
genetics, and mental illness stigma in Chinese Americans
Ahtoy J. WonPat-Borja, Lawrence H. Yang, Jo C. Phelan,
Soc Psychiatry, Epidemiology 2012 January 47(1) 145-156
This study examines the role of
genetic beliefs in mental illness stigma in Chinese societies. |
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Interview with Paul Root Wolpe, Director of Emory University’s Center for
Ethics; board member at the Victor Centers
for Jewish Genetic Diseases by William Saletan
The Atlantic, November, 2011, page 60
In the interview, Wolpe explains why he thinks it is justified to end the life
of unborn children with abnormalities. |
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Psychiatric Genocide: Nazi Attempts to Eradicate Schizophrenia
E. Fuller Torrey'.Robert H. Yolken,
Schizophrenia Bulletin, vol. 36, no. 1, 2010
Explores the incidence and impact of the Nazi genocide of psychiatric
patients.
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Genetic Technologies and Ethics
Ali M. Ardekani
J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2009; 2: 11.
This article reviews ethical issues presented by the use of
new genetic technologies in the development of stem cells, cloning, gene
therapy, genetic manipulation,
gene selection, sex selection and preimplantation diagnosis particularly concerning human reproductive
cloning, inheritable genetic modification and social trait
selection as well
as research into cloning and embryonic stem cell research using IVF embryos
and medically-related genetic selection, somatic genetic enhancement
and
commercialization and commodification of human reproductive practices |
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Human Dignity
in the Nazi Era: Implications for Contemporary Bioethics
Donal P. O’Mathuna
BMC Medical Ethics, 2006, 7:2
Analyzes the five beliefs central to social Darwinism for their influence on
current discussions in medical ethics and bioethics. |
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Eugenics and the Misuse of Genetic
Information to Restrict Reproductive Freedom: ASHG Statement
by the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics,
Am J. Hum Genet, 64: 335-338, 1999
Opposes public health programs that use genetic information to reduce the
number of births of children with specific disorders.
WARNING: This article does support the use of
genetic information by private individuals to end the life of children in
the womb.
This position is NOT supported by the Human Family Research Center. The
article states that “…for the majority of pregnancies
it is not possible to make predictions about a future child’s health or
other capacities. Misguided efforts to do so devalue
humanity.” Yet it fully supports doing just that, as long as a government is
not involved. The article is included to show the
unfortunate acceptance of a eugenic attitude in current culture. |
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History of Eugenics in
the United States
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Virginia to Compensate Victims of
State's Forced Sterilization Program
Christina Maza
The Christian Science Monitor, February 27, 2015 (article
includes a video)
Beginning in the 1920's until the mid-1970's,
Virginia forcibly sterilized more than 8000 people.
This article reports on a recent decision of the Virginia legislature to
compensate victims of this injustice.
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Gateway Website to Eugenics Sites
created by students at the University of Vermont
The sites cover compulsory sterilization in all 50 states, Nazi Murder of
Disabled Children and Exhibits on
Nazi Euthanasia Crimes |
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The War Against Population: The Economics and Ideology of World Population Control
by Jacqueline Kasun
(Revised Edition) San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999, 309
pp.
Reviewed by Raymond J. Adamek, Ph.D on Oct 15,2013
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Federal
Sterilization Policy: Unintended Consequences
Susan P. Raine, JD, MD, LLM
Virtual Mentor. February 2012, Volume 14, Number 2: 152-157
In the past, forced sterilizations violated the autonomy of vulnerable women.
Today, measures intended to protect such women from the abuses of the
past may
in fact hamper their autonomy in a different way. |
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U.S. Scientists'
Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907–1939): A Contemporary Biologist's
Perspective
Steven A. Farber
Zebrafish.
2008 December;
5(4):
243–245.
This article examines how biological and other scientific analysis was used to
support eugenics policies. |
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Better for all the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization
and America's Quest for Racial
Harry Bruinius, 2006, Alfred A. Knopf
Reviewed by Sally Satel
The New York Times February 26, 2006
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Sterilized in the Name of Public Health: Race, Immigration, and
Reproductive Control in Modern California
Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD
Am J Public Health.
2005 July;
95(7):
1128–1138.
This article provides an overview of
California’s nonconsensual sterilizations on patients in state-run
homes and hospitals from 1909 to 1979, which resulted in over
20 000
of such sterilizations, or one third of the more than 60 000 such
procedures in the United States in the 20th century. |
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Les politiques eugénistes aux
Etats-Unis dans la première moitié du XXe siècle
(Eugenist Politics in the United States of America in the First XXth
Half-century)
Dominique Aubert-Marson
Med Sci (Paris),2005 Mar;21(3):320-3.
Reviews eugenicist policies of the United States, which was the
first country to create create policies in the early part of the
20th century. Article is in French
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Nuremberg and Tuskegee: Lessons for Contemporary American Medicine
David M. Pressel
J Natl Med Assoc. 2003 December; 95(12):
Examines the ethical problems of Nazi medicine and ethical missteps
in the United States in the context of challenges for contemporary
physicians, including the way
patients are referred to. |
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Making Better Babies: Public Health and Race Betterment in Indiana,
1920-1935
Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD.,
American Journal of Public Health, 2002 May, (92)5: 742-752
This article reviews the experience of Indiana, 1920-35 in its
attempts to bring about race betterment. Indiana passed the first
eugenic sterilization
law to deal with what they perceived to be an
“escalating menace of the feeble-minded.” |
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Oregon's Governor Apologizes for Forced
Sterilizations,
Deborah Josefson,
British Medical Journal, 12/14/02, 325 (7377), 1380
This article cites the 2648 people who were sterilized between 1923
and 1981 in Oregon because they were mentally ill, had epilepsy,
were criminals,
or were homosexual. The state also sterilized
residents of reform schools and girls who were considered
promiscuous. |
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Eugenics
movement reaches its height (1923)
PBS People and Discoveries|
Brief history of the Eugenics movement in the United States in the early
part of the 20th century. |
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Roots of Eugenics in America:
Immigration Act [1907]
In 1907, President
Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots,
imbeciles, feebleminded persons,
epileptics, insane persons" from being admitted to the United
States.
History Central Network |
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Evidence
of Eugenic Attitude
Videos
