When Was The Oregon State Board Of Eugenics Be Abolished
In 1917, a law was passed creating the Oregon State Board of Eugenics. Eugenics is the concept of promoting people with sought after physical and mental traits to reproduce in order to enhance society. The board was allowed to sterilize inmates and patients in prisons and mental institutions, and if they could not reproduce, the thought was it would improve society. However, in 1983 the law was abolished. Sterilizing people does not stop the following generation from having physical or mental abnormalities nor does it prevent crime, using genetics to predict the mental state of future generations is not logical, and the sterilizations were unfair and inhumane. Based on the evidence, it was the correct decision to terminate the Oregon State Board of Eugenics.
Arguments in Favor of the Oregon
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However, the Oregon State Board of Eugenics often sterilized people who were mentally ill, criminals, homosexuals, epileptic, girls labeled as promiscuous, and residents of reform schools. Occasionally epilepsy is hereditary, but the remaining conditions cannot be credited to genetics. The Oregon State Board of Eugenics wanted to improve society through genetics, but the conditions sterilized patients had were not hereditary. Therefore, the sterilization of those patients was pointless, and the Oregon State Board of Eugenics did not need to continue. However, children can be conditioned through experiences to become a criminal or mentally ill, but sterilizing people who are criminals or mentally ill would not stop children from following that path. There are cases when law abiding and mentally healthy parents have children who become criminals or mentally ill. In addition, Bethenia Owens-Adair thought that genetics explained everything about the mental and physical state of a child born into a family. In the early to mid 1900’s, most of those who supported Owens-Adair’s idea of Eugenics were not educated
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