Eugenics

So yes I finally did it. My Eugenics blog! Here it is, I worked really hard on it so I hope you enjoy!       


So I had a hard time understanding what exactly eugenics was from the site Mr. Ludwig gave us. So I did what any person would do....I googled it! My definition came from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:eugenics&sa=X&ei=Lyd0TaiaOJGH0QHdgpjFAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QkAE                 



What is Eugenics?
          Eugenics is the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding. Eugenics was used to try and get rid of people that harmed society such as mentally ill, poor, and different races. This was a social movement that involved practices that violated rights to life, privacy, and freedom.

What Were The Social Origins of Eugenics?
         - Eugenics started right after the Civil War. With how fast the industry in America was growing people started moving from farms into the city faster then good housing was being built. There were also many immigrants coming from Europe into the United States.
        -There was a declining birthrate among the wealthy while the working class was organizing against them. While the wealthy were worried about losing the struggle for existence the working class was reproducing faster then them.
          - Many business's were becoming bankrupt. There were a series of depressions that started in 1873 and occurred every decade until the early twentieth century.
          -The government started to become involved in social and economic issues. This was called Progressivism. Progressive reformers believed that science could cure everything and make everything okay again. This is what started Eugenics.
          -Genetics seemed to explain human problems such as pauperism, alcoholism, prostitution etc.
          -Eugenics made people believe that the government wasted to much money to support the disabled. Eugenics said that if you sterilized one disabled adult to keep others from being created it would save future generations a lot of money.
          -Eugenicists believed the immigrants coming from Europe, which included Italians and Jews, were troublemakers. They supposedly had data that said the problem was in their genes. Their solution to the problem was " Selective Immigration Restriction."


Scientific Origins of Eugenics:
          Francis Galton composed the word "eugenics" in 1883. His version of the word eugenics was called Positive Eugenics. Positive eugenics was said that only the ablest and healthiest people should have children to improve humanity. There is also a Negative Eugenics. This was not letting certain people reproduce. Negative eugenics was favored in the United States, Germany, and Scandinavia.
          There was a concern that environmental influences might damage heredity. This would lead to ill health, insanity, early death, and defective offspring. This was made into a degeneracy theory in the early 1700's. This theory was the pre dominant way of thinking until the late 19th Century.
           Masturbation was one of the first presented biological theory's as a cause of degeneracy. This led Harry Clay Sharp, a prison physician, to "sterilize" by performing vasectomies on prisoners in 1899. This led to the first eugenic sterilization law in 1907 that mandated compulsory sterilization of degenerates. Scientists believed that "degenerate" was caused not only by masturbation but poisoning and bad environments as well. They also believed that a good environment could cure a degenerate within three generations.
          Eugenicists started saying that degenerates should be prevented from breeding. They thought that degenerates should be put in custody in asylums or through sterilization. There were many doctors that felt sterilization was a more humane way of dealing with people that couldn't help themselves. Performing vasectomies and tubal ligation happened a lot. Sterilization let the "infected" participate in society instead of being put in custody at the public's expense. This was not viewed as a punishment because doctors believed that the reason these people were "unfit" was because of an irreversibly degenerate germ plasm.

What research methods were used to study eugenics and what were there flaws?
          One way to research eugenics was called a pedigree. Scientists would use pedigrees to trace the inheritance of a trait through a family. Tracing traits was not always easy. There were certain mental and behavior traits that were not easy to find in a person. Another problem was trying to find out if a person had a complex trait such as intelligence.
          There were many organizations in the United States that encouraged eugenics research. One major one was the Eugenics Record Office (ERO). A lot of eugenical information was given voluntarily to the ERO on questionnaires filled out by families. Eugenicists would also get data from insane asylums, prisons, orphanages, and homes from the blind to help with their research. The information that the ERO would help gather helped Eugenicists to develop pedigrees. Back then they didn't have DNA to help follow trait inheritance through families. This made their pedigrees inaccurate sometimes.
There were many flaws in the research of eugenics that included:
   -Reification: This is when complex traits are treated as if they are a single entity
   -Poor survey and statistical methods: Eugenics researchers could not interview family members going back further then two or three generations to see who had the inherited trait. Hospitals did not keep very good medical records so some pedigrees were completed on second- hand reporting or sometimes hearsay.
   -False Quantification: This is the assumption that if you can produce a numerical value then it must be valid. One example is on an intelligence test.
   -Social and Environmental Influences: Eugenicists would not take all influences into consideration when tracing traits.


How did eugenics research impact American society?
        Eugenics caused marriage laws, sterilization laws, and immigration restriction in America.
        There were laws that forbid people to marry of different races in America from the Colonial Period to the mid 20th century. In the early 20th century, the eugenics movement supplied arguments to support these marriage laws. One argument was known as miscegenation. Miscegenation said that there were biological dangers if races were mixed.
         Legally-mandated sterilization was the most radical policy supported by the eugenics movement. The Model Law, published in 1914, proposed authorization to sterilize the "socially inadequate." The people included in this were the feebleminded, insane, blind, deaf, criminalistic, and many others. When the Model Law was published twelve states had enacted sterilization laws. By 1924 around 3,000 people had been involuntarily sterilized in America. (FACT: 2,500 of these people were in California.) Eventually more then 60,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in America.
         There were many immigration laws in America. These laws were set up to restrict who could come into the country. Eugenicists started to provide biological arguments to support immigration restriction. They said that these "inferior stock" would have a major impact on society.

So you are probably wondering where I learned everything I know about Eugenics. Well I went to the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement. If you're looking for more information on eugenics click on this link: http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/



Well I am finally done. This blog has taken me a long time to finish but here it is! I am so glad to be done. Other then learning about Eugenics I figured out some things I could do to help me figure out things I don't understand when I first read it. Well the first thing you can do is try re reading it out loud to your self a couple times. Usually the words become less jumbled. And if that doesn't help you can always look at other students blogs. This really helped me! (Thank you Leigh and Audi!) Well I am glad this blog is over. Now hopefully you won't see another blog until after Spring Break!


-To check out Audi's blog go to http://4acre.wordpress.com/!
-To check out Leigh's blog go to http://leighsbiologyblog.blogspot.com/
          
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