1. Eugenics: the “well-born” science Joanne Woiak jwoiak@u.washington.edu
Science of eugenics: genetic determinism
Disabilities and “social ills” are inheritable traits.
Medical model (and moral).
Policies: “rationally” improve human biological quality by controlling who reproduces
Scientific knowledge applied to “better breeding.”
Fewer offspring from “unfit” people; more from “fit.”
What kinds of people do we want? Who should we prevent from being born?

2. Eugenics movement, 1900-1945 Word coined by Francis Galton 1860s.
30+ countries had their own versions.
Organizations of social reformers, biologists, doctors, other professional experts.
Politically and scientifically “progressive.”
Apply the new science of human genetics to control/engineer population health & fitness.
Economic rationale: reduce the “burden” of welfare services, increase efficiency.

3. Sources: Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
Hosted by the Human Genome Project’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Which was originally the Eugenics Record Office, the center of US human genetics research and advocacy for eugenics policy,

4. How to improve the hereditary make-up of the “race”?
Positive eugenics
Encourage “fitter” people to have more kids who share their “good” genes.
Negative eugenics
Persuade, pressure, or compel “unfit” people not to pass on “defective” genes.
Permanent segregation.
Forced sterilization.

5. Most extreme: eugenics in Nazi Germany
1933 Forced sterilization law applied to 400,000 “hereditary defectives.”
1939 Killing programs (“euthanasia”) against 200,000 institutionalized adults and children with disabilities.
Economic logic: “lives not worth living,” “useless eaters”
1941 Gas chambers from that program moved to the concentration camps to murder 6 million Jewish people.

6. Negative eugenics in US: 30 states had sterilization laws by 1930s

7. 60,000 legally sterilized s

8. How much does “degeneracy” cost society
How much does “degeneracy” cost society? Who is “born to be a burden” as a criminal, feebleminded, etc? State fair exhibit promoting eugenics.

9. Eliminate all inherited and congenital disabilities, e. g
Eliminate all inherited and congenital disabilities, e.g. “results of conception when the father was intoxicated.”

10. Good heredity for the sake of “health”

11. Hereditary defective groups invading the body politic
“Infectious germs”: symbols for Jews, communists, gays.
“With his poison, the Jew destroys the sluggish blood of weaker peoples; so that a diagnosis arises, of swift degeneration. With us, however, the case is different: The blood is pure; we are healthy!”

12. Racist agenda & outcome of US eugenics: 1924 Immigration Act
Eugenicists’ expert testimony on race & IQ.
Law set quotas for Eastern and Southern European immigrants.
Disability justified discriminatory policies since 1882, excluded undesirable “lunatics,” “idiots,” “likely to become a public charge.”

13. Congressman Albert Johnson, R-WA, 1924 speech
“With this immigration act, the US is undertaking to regulate and control the great problem of the commingling of races. Our hope is in a homogeneous nation. At one time we welcomed all and all helped to build the nation. But now asylum ends. This nation must be as completely unified as any nation in Europe or Asia. Self-preservation demands it.”

14. 1913 Ellis Island mental testing
“moron detectors”
80% immigrants scored feebleminded
Deportation rate increased

15. 1918 IQ tests
US Army
For recruits who were non-English speaking or illiterate.
Complete the picture.
40% found to be FM.

16. Actual Test Questions, Army Alpha
SAMPLE People hear with their eyes\ears\nose\mouth 1. Pinochle is played with rackets\cards\pins\dice 2. Habeus corpus is a term used in medicine\law\pedagogy 3. Bud Fisher is a famous actor\author\athlete\comic 4. Velvet Joe appears in ads for tooth powder\soap\dry goods\tobacco 5. The number of a Kaffir’s legs is \4\6\8

17. WWI Army Mental Tests: Racial Rankings

18. Positive eugenics: Fitter Families contests and the Cross of Honor of the German Mother

19. US Eugenic “Euthanasia” and Disability

20. 1917 eugenic film The Black Stork: “There are times when saving a life is a greater crime than taking one.”

21. 1927 retitled “Are You Fit to Marry?”
Haiselden’s autobio: “We have been invaded. Our streets are infested with an Army of the Unfit—a dangerous, vicious army of death and dread.... Horrid semi-humans drag themselves along our streets.... What are you doing to do about it?”

22. Negative eugenics “Voluntary” measures Coercive policies
Eugenic education, propaganda aimed at general public, e.g. school textbooks, films, state fair exhibits.
Coercive policies
Permanent confinement in institutions.
Surgical sterilization, sometimes as condition for parole.

23. Who was targeted as “unfit”?
Charles Davenport, head of the Eugenics Record Office, the scientific branch of the US movement: “It is a reproach to our intelligence that we as a people should have to support about half a million insane, feebleminded, epileptic, blind and deaf; 80,000 prisoners and 100,000 paupers at a cost of over 100 million dollars per year.”

24. Alexander Graham Bell 1872 founds deaf school in Boston.
Invents devices to aid hearing.
Studies heredity in deaf families.
1883: “avoid creating a deaf-mute variety of the human race” by intermarriages.
Becomes leader of eugenics movement.

25. Perkins School for the Blind: 1928 family pedigree and expenses

26. 1921 legislation inspired by hereditarian beliefs: prevent marriages of blind people.