Dowling College: Senior
Seminar
Ethics in the New
Genetic Era: ASC 128 Winter 2001
Janene Ragone
Presentation Write-Up
Eugenics in the United States
Eugenics was introduced in 1865 in England and it
was introduced into the United States in 1883. It all started with Mendel and
his hybridization of plants. Then Darwin introduced his theory of evolution and
the “Origin of Species”. Darwin had a cousin from Britain named Francis Galton.
Francis Galton was born in 1822and later on he studied Mathematics and Science.
In 1865 he coined the word “Eugenics” which came from the Greek word that meant
noble in birth or heredity or t he study of
hereditary or the improvement of the human race by controlled selective
breeding. GALTON DID NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN AND IT WASSAID THAT HE BELIEVED IN
EUGENICS TO CREATE HIS OWN STOCK OF Galtons.
A friend of Francis Galton named Karl
Pearson who was a mathematician studied the meaning behind the bell curve. He
was not interested in the people who fell around the mean but the individuals
that fell outside the mean. He studied the patients that were labeled Mentally
retarded. He called these people feeble minded and said that they were of a
lower breed.
Charles Davenport was Harvard professor
of Zoology who was born and raised in the United States. He read Karl Pearson’s
papers on mathematical theory of evolution and he went to England to discuss
the theory of evolution with Galton and Pearson. He came back to the U.S. to
implement his theory and he persuaded the Carnegie Institute of Washington to
fund the study of evolution. In 1904 he opened the Eugenics Record Office at
Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He received much funding from Mrs. Harriman a
rich widow of an Industrialist, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Theodore
Roosevelt.
Mrs. Harriman and her husband used to breed horses so she thought
that this could be done with human beings. Theodore Roosevelt said,
“Feebleminded people have no rights to be born or to procreate.”
In
Iowa there was a Biology schoolteacher by the name of Laughlin. He was breeding
poultry and study the affects, He wrote a letter to Davenport to get his
opinion on the situation. Davenport invited his to his Eugenics Office in New
York and suggested that he take a six-week course there. A few years late rLaughlin became the
superintendent of the Eugenics record office.
Sources of Information
Kevles, Daniel J., In the
Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity, RandomHouse,
Inc., New York, 1985.
I found this book to be a tremendous asset to my paper because it offered historical information step by step and it gave different point of views on the eugenics’ movement. This book takes you through the history of eugenics starting with its founder Francis Galton. It discusses the opening of the Eugenics Record office at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. It discusses man’s Utopian expectations; and his dream of controlling the makeup of the human species and it reviewed how eugenics was weapons used against different races and classes. The book examined the social, moral and political issues of eugenics. It takes you through the sterilization’s that occurred inside and outside the United States.
Kitcher, Philip, The Lives
to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities, TouchstoneBooks, 1997.
This book gives a scientific
explanation of genetic testing that can help predict future characteristics and
diseases of a child. It reviews the past history of the use of eugenics in the
United States and Germany. It gives different case studies of genetic testing
and the moral and ethical issues of genetic testing. The book also gives examples of advantages and disadvantages of
releasing genetic information to the public.
Perea, Juan F. Immigrants
Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States,
New York University Press, 1997
The majority of this book revolves around how immigrants were officially kept out of the United States and it also discuses how eugenics was the cause of an immigration act in 1924. Certain people feared the influx of individuals with the wrong breed would cause problems for the United States.
Reilly, Philip, R., The Surgical
Solution-A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the United States, The
John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland 1991.
This book reviews the
sterilization of more than 60,000 people in the United States from 1898-1974.
The sterilization’s were done to retarded, mentally defected and criminal
persons. It tells you how these techniques were reviewed by the Nazi’s in
Germany and later implemented to follow the United States.
Rifkin, Jeremy, The Biotech
Century, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998.
To learn more about our society today and our future we must first look at our past. I found this book to be very helpful to my research because it contained information regarding eugenics in the United States and other countries. It gave much insight to the thoughts and comments of the scientists in the early part of this century and it discussed their beliefs about the future evolution of the human society. It also discussed experiments with white rats to test alcoholic treatment, and the inheritance of predisposition to cancer in man. It displayed the part the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor; New York played in the future sterilization’s in the United States.
Web Sites:
Http://encarta.msn.com
Encarta Encyclopedia titled “Eugenics”
This web site gives a brief description of the definition of Eugenics and the sociological theories know as social Darwinism.
http://clio1.cshl.org/public/history.htm Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories
This web sit offers the information about the opening of Cold Spring Harbor, Eugenics Record office and the procedures that are occurring today at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories.