What Are The Pros And Cons Of Eugenics

When one hears the word Eugenics, one associates it with the terrible actions of Nazi Germany, but Germany was not the only country, which adopted the horrible social movement known as Eugenics. It took place in countries such as Great Britain, Sweden, Australia, USA and many more, all of whom introduced policies and programs such as birth control, marriage restrictions, segregation, forced abortions and sterilization, and worst of all genocide with aims to improve the human race by potentially breeding out undesired traits and ridding society of all those deemed as “unfit”. The idea of breeding out undesirable genes or traits is loaded with problematic value judgments, and the various ways that such ideas have been implemented as policy have scared many people and lead to the deaths of millions of people, therefore it undoubtedly has a bad reputation.

He had based his ideas on Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution (C) and believed that by the process of selective breeding “a highly gifted race of men” could be produced. This could lead to the prosperity of a country as the “unfit” were seen as the cause of social problems such as poverty, crime, violence, urban decay, prostitution, alcoholism and mental diseases such as “feeblemindedness” (2) and, if not taken care of, the countrys resources would be drained. Which is why it became so popular, so quickly among the different countires. Here one can already see that this devastating movement was based on the assumptions of one man as even today most of the science behind eugenics is seen as flawed. Galton went on to promote his ideas at institutions and when he died his idea of Eugenics did not go down with