EUGENICS 



20<JO 



EUGENICS 



eugenics, from a Greek word meaning good 

 birth. Most sciences concern themselves not 

 with what ought to be, but with what is; but 

 eugenics combines the two ideas. It declares 

 that every child has a right to be well-born 

 to enter life without unnecessary handicaps; 

 and it seta itself so far as possible to bring this 

 to pass. 



First of all, there are certain definite laws 

 of heredity which are used as a basis. Stock- 

 breeders and plant-breeders have long taken 

 advantage of these to produce better and bet- 

 ter plants and animals. By allowing only the 

 most perfect specimens to reproduce, they do 

 away with certain weaknesses and strengthen 

 the good points; for it is a well-established 

 fact th:it every living thing, whether plant or 

 animal, receives its every characteristic from 

 its ancestors, the most from those closest to 

 it in point of time, the rest in ever-lessening 

 degree from those further back. Everybody 

 knows of the wonderful effects Luther Burbank 

 has achieved in the plant world by making use 

 of these principles (see BURBANK, LUTHER). 



Now, scientists know that just as wonderful 

 results could be achieved with human beings, 

 if it were possible to control their lives in 

 somewhat the same way. If none but strong, 

 well-grown, intelligent men and strong, beau- 

 tiful, intelligent women were allowed to mate 

 and have families, within a few generations 

 there would be practically no weaklings, 

 whether in mind or in body. But, after all, 

 there is a difference in dealing with human 

 beings and with plants or animals; all human 

 beings insist on mating from choice and not 

 because any body of scientific men, no matter 

 how good judges they may be, have chosen 

 suitable mates for them. Even the most en- 

 thusiastic advocates of eugenics realize, there- 

 fore, that the science can never come to exer- 

 cise any official control; but by the spread of 

 the doctrines, which are not theories, but cer- 

 tainties, they hope to achieve much for future 

 generations. 



The legislature of the state of Wisconsin in 

 1913 passed a stringent law requiring a phys- 

 ical examination of the male applicant for a 

 marriage license. This law was upheld by a 

 decision of the supreme court of the state. 

 Oregon and Pennsylvania have enacted similar 

 laws, though less stringent as to the physical 

 tests to be passed. Various other states have 

 laws forbidding the marriage of insane, epilep- 

 tic, feeble-mmded and others physically or 

 morally unfit for marriage. A beneficial result 



of the agitation and discussion aroused by the 

 passage of such laws is that many people have 

 come to see for themselves the necessity for 

 such precautions. It is only in the United 

 States, however, that drastic legislation like 

 that of the state of Wisconsin has made any 

 headway. 



In one way, eugenics to-day has more to 

 contend against than it would have had in 

 times past. The ancient Spartans, for instance, 

 allowed all the weak, imperfectly-formed babies 

 to die, and thus built up a race which physi- 

 cally was almost perfect (see SPARTA). But 

 the charitable attitude of modern times toward 

 such weaklings demands that they shall re- 

 ceive more care and attention than the 

 stronger children, and thus they often grow 

 up to marry and have children who are even 

 more defective than themselves. On the other 

 hand, the frequent wars of antiquity killed off 

 many of the finest physical specimens and thus 

 helped to produce a smaller, feebler race. A 

 war which causes many deaths is certain to 

 have that effect; and if, in the minds of the 

 skeptical, eugenics should need any proofs 

 of its principles, these will without doubt be 

 found in plenty in population conditions in 

 Europe during the generations following the 

 destructive War of the Nations. 



It may well be pointed out that a distinc- 

 tion is made between negative eugenics and 

 positive eugenics, the former seeking to pre- 

 vent the multiplication of the unfit, the latter 

 to encourage the multiplication of the fit. 

 Negative eugenics calls for a considerable use 

 of law. The unfit are often beyond the reach 

 of a sense of responsibility for their offspring, 

 and hence they can be controlled only by 

 such policies as segregation, sterilization, etc. 

 On the other hand, there is little room for law 

 in encouraging superior persons to marry early 

 and have normal families. With such, the 

 motive will be the appeal of eugenics as an 

 ideal of life. For positive results, therefore, 

 the hope is in diffusing among the finer mem- 

 bers of the race a sense of their obligation to 

 transmit their inheritance and a pride in be- 

 coming parents of healthy, beautiful and intel- 

 ligent children. E.A.R. 



For a more extended study of the subject the 

 reader is referred to Davenport's Heredity in Re- 

 lation to Eugenics; Guyer's Being Well Born; 

 Eugenics Record Office Memoirs (Cold Spring 

 Harbor, N. Y.) ; Jewett's The Next Generation. 

 An extensive bibliography entitled Eugenics and 

 Social Welfare has been published by the New 

 York State Board of Charities. 



