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PubMed1998

"We picked the wrong one to sterilise": the role of nursing in the eugenics movement in Alberta, 1920-1940.

The opening decades of the twentieth century were years in which the Canadian government actively recruited immigrants from the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States to assist in the settlement of western Canada. The immigration waves that followed contained large numbers of non-English speaking people of eastern European heritage. As these numbers increased, the white Anglo-Saxon minority feared a "multiplication of the inferior". Alberta's solution was the passage of the Sterilization Act in 1928 and the creation of the Eugenics Board. The Act remained law until 1972 and its repercussions are facing Alberta courts today. The Act was supported by many prominent first-wave feminists such as Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy. Nurses too supported the Act and the philosophical ideology on which the need for sterilization was based- "an available means for racial improvement." The role nurses played in promoting eugenics in Alberta through referrals to the Eugenics Board and the promotion of birth control material will be explored in the presentation. Contributions made by public health nurses will be included since much of their work was devoted to the socialization of new immigrants to Canada. Class, gender and ethnicity are central themes to this discussion because the majority of individuals who were sterilized were unemployed, female immigrants from eastern Europe. These two decades represent a time in nursing history when the nurse's duty to care was complicated by the attitudes and values of the society in which she existed. Primary sources used include the personal collection of one of Alberta's early birth control nurses, Canadian Journal of Public Health, Canadian Nurse, and Alberta newspapers.

Canada↗
PubMed2002

Ethical dimensions of yousheng (healthy birth or eugenics): the perspective of a Chinese ethicist.

Yousheng meaning eugenics or healthy-birth and youyu meaning good-upbringing are necessary requirements for the development of human beings and therefore of humankind generally. There are enormous ethical issues involved in eugenics. An important task or calling of contemporary bioethics and ethics of population is to discuss these issues in order for people, even people in different countries and cultures, to reach some basic consensus and have practical ethical guidance. Based on the practice of yousheng in contemporary China, this paper offers a Chinese perspective on ethical dimensions of eugenics. It will argue that individuals, as members of society, have a duty to provide society with healthy and normal children. Moreover, this paper examines the relationships between the aim and the means and conflicts between collective value and individual value, in yousheng.

China↗
PubMed1991

Eugenics: past, present, and the future.

During the past 20 years there has been a resurgence of interest in the history of the eugenics movements, particularly those of the United States and Germany. Unfortunately, most of these accounts have been published in nonmedical and nongenetic journals, so they are not readily available to geneticists or physicians. The authors of this article are concerned about the lack of information that geneticists, physicians, and students have concerning the origin and progress of these movements. This article provides a short history of the American and German eugenics programs and concludes with a review of their possible relations to our current practices. It is hoped that this will encourage institutions to include, in master's Ph.D., and M.D. programs in human genetics, lectures, seminars, and journal clubs on the topic of eugenics.

Ethical Theory↗
PubMed1998

Human fertility and differential birth rates in American eugenics and genetics: a brief history.

Eugenics is a broad term used to describe a variety of social and state-sponsored reform movements. Although we usually think of Nazi atrocities when we hear the word "eugenics," in this article I discuss the manifestations of hereditary reform worldwide. In particular, I consider the history of eugenics in America, focusing on concerns about the differences in birth rates between various racial, ethnic, and educational groups. In the early twentieth century, the social and cultural expectations that surrounded the growing knowledge in genetics implied an ethical imperative for physicians. Physicians were expected to use their knowledge about genetics to help them decide what sort of advice and assistance should be given to those who wanted knowledge about birth control, or help in resolving problems concerning sterility and infertility. Today, with growing knowledge about human genetics, physicians are subject to increasing pressure to make similar judgments.

Birth Rate↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Eugenics is alive and well: a survey of genetic professionals around the world.

A survey of 2901 genetics professionals in 36 nations suggests that eugenic thought underlies their perceptions of the goals of genetics and that directiveness in counseling after prenatal diagnosis leads to individual decisions based on pessimistically biased information, especially in developing nations of Asia and Eastern Europe. The "non-directive counseling" found in English-speaking nations is an aberration from the rest of the world. Most geneticists, except in China, rejected government involvement in premarital testing or sterilization, but most also held a pessimistic view of persons with genetic disabilities. Individual, but not state-coerced, eugenics survives in much modern genetic practice.

Abortion, Eugenic↗
PubMed2001

Screening for disability: a eugenic pursuit?

This article is written in response to the idea that selective termination may be eugenic. It points out that a mixture of motives and goals may inform screening programmes and selective termination for fetal abnormality without the intention being "eugenic". The paper locates modern genetics within the tradition of humanist medicine by suggesting that parents who choose to terminate a pregnancy because of fetal abnormalities are not making moral judgments about those who are living with these abnormalities already. Rather they are making judgments about their own lives and the lives of their children in relation to this genetic disorder. It concludes by introducing several caveats about the counselling that parents receive after the results of the testing and suggests that counselling inevitably contains a directive element because of the nature of the information covered.

Abortion, Eugenic↗
PubMed2002

Toward a racial abyss: eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, and the origins of The Pioneer Fund.

The Pioneer Fund was created in 1937 "to conduct or aid in conducting study and research into problems of heredity and eugenics . . . and problems of race betterment with special reference to the people of the United States." The Fund was endowed by Colonel Wickliffe Preston Draper, a New England textile heir, and perpetuates his legacy through an active program of grants, some of the more controversial in aid of research on racial group differences. Those presently associated with the Fund maintain that it has made a substantial contribution to the behavioral and social sciences, but insider accounts of Pioneer's history oversimplify its past and smooth over its more tendentious elements. This article examines the social context and intellectual background to Pioneer's origins, with a focus on Col. Draper himself, his concerns about racial degeneration, and his relation to the eugenics movement. In conclusion, it evaluates the official history of the fund.

Behavioral Sciences↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Eugenics and the protection of the human species in bioethical laws. Toward a new legal construction of man].

The aim of this study is to bring to the fore some issues concerning human rights unleashed by the bioethical laws of July 1994, regarding the application of biotechnologies to reproduction. To achieve this aim, an analysis is offered of the legal arrangements, set by law in order to determine the procedures related to the selection of embryos and the transformation of their genetic characteristics. These analyses are then compared to the eugenic procedures instituted in the West during the first half of the xxth century. As a result, the idea is challenged, that eugenics is a category fit for the characterizing the biopolitical project contained in the bioethical laws. To conclude, the aim is made that what is a stake, as far as human rights are concerned, is the fate of the idea of man and of the subject of rights that is involved in these laws.

Bioethics↗
PubMed2006

Confronting "hereditary" disease: eugenic attempts to eliminate tuberculosis in progressive era America.

Tuberculosis was clearly one of the most predominant diseases of the early twentieth century. At this time, Americans involved in the eugenics movement grew increasingly interested in methods to prevent this disease's potential hereditary spread. To do so, as this essay examines, eugenicists' attempted to shift the accepted view that tuberculosis arose from infection and contagion to a view of its heritable nature. The methods that they employed to better understand the propagation and control of tuberculosis are also discussed. Finally, the essay explores the interpretative analyses of data that the Eugenics Record Office used in an attempt to convince contemporaries of the hereditary transmission of tuberculosis.

Eugenics↗
PubMed2004

Legacy of the American eugenics movement: implications for primary care.

One hundred years ago the first "genetic revolution" promised a boon to society through the rational application of scientific knowledge about heredity. Leading American physicians, psychologists,social workers, scientists, educators, and philanthropists advocated a eugenics agenda that called for the elimination of the "unfit." This legacy has affected profoundly the current nondirective model of genetic counseling. As primary care now prepares for the age of genomic medicine, the history of eugenics provides a perspective for the application of patient-centered care and shared decision-making models to the process of genetic testing.

Eugenics↗
PubMed2005

Eugenics: some lessons from the past.

Eugenics was first debated by the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle, developed in the nineteenth century by Francis Galton and Charles Darwin, and then abused in the twentieth century by right-wing politicians. With the new methods of assisted conception combined with the use of genetic markers, all the old problems of eugenics have resurfaced. Gender selection, embryo selection, preimplantation genetic diagnosis of common disease, and gene replacement techniques (somatic cells) have added greatly to the power of the modern eugenicist. How are these procedures to be monitored and regulated? What is the role of the State compared with individual families for the implementation of the new methodologies? Some of these issues will be discussed.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Can genetic counseling avoid the charge of eugenics?

The claim that x is a form of eugenics is frequently used as if it were a knockdown argument against x. Genetic counseling has tried to distance itself from eugenics by presenting itself as facilitating choice. Its success in this attempt has been challenged. The argument however is not a knockdown one and there is scope for some mediation between autonomy and public health goals in genetics.

Directive Counseling↗
PubMed2001

Can it be a "sin" to understand disease? On "genes" and "eugenics" and an "unconnected connection".

Particularly, but not exclusively, in Germany, concerns are uttered as to the consequences of modern biotechnological advances and their range of applications in the field of human genetics. Whereas the proponents of this research are mainly focussing on the possible knowledge that could be gained by understanding the causes of developmental processes and of disease on the molecular level, the critics fear the beginnings of a new eugenics movement. Without claiming a logical relationship between genetic sciences and eugenics movements, it is nevertheless suggested in this article that a connection between both can become established when the distinction between scientifically validated statements on one hand and guiding hypotheses and assumptions on the other hand is blurred, as is observed particularly when scientists report their results to the public. This claim is demonstrated in comparisons between the current state of scientific knowledge on the role of genes in development and causation of diseases, and the way this is presented to the public. It is required that a debate on biotechnology should include reflections on the validity of claims made by scientists.

Eugenics↗
PubMed2003

Huntington's disease: do future physicians and lawyers think eugenically?

The availability of presymptomatic and prenatal genetic tests could give rise to societal pressures on persons at risk for Huntington's disease (HD). The objective of this study was to identify future lawyers' and physicians' views on eugenics and genetic testing for HD. Five-hundred and ninety-nine Swiss law students and advanced medical students from 11 courses received teaching about HD and patient autonomy. They filled out questionnaires after having seen an audio/video recording of an interview with an HD mutation carrier. Participation rates were 68-97%. Attitudes of future lawyers and physicians were significantly different for most questions: 73.2% of law students vs 39.4% of medical students agreed that society should do everything possible to diminish the frequency of HD, including non-governmental pressure on carriers to undergo systematic genetic testing and recommendation of sterilization; 94% of all students agreed to the systematic proposal of prenatal testing to all women at risk; and 83.4% of medical students, but only 40.3% of law students, agreed that the wishes of a person at risk not to have her/himself and future children tested must be entirely respected. More education is needed to discourage eugenic pressures and discrimination of persons at risk of HD and other genetic diseases.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Perfecting people: selective breeding at the Oneida Community (1869-1879) and the eugenics movement.

The paper describes the selective breeding experiment which took place in the Bible Communist Oneida Community in New York State. The Community was founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes and grew to some three hundred members. It disbanded in 1880 and became a joint stock company, Oneida Ltd., which today is a multinational cutlery manufacturer. Between 1869 and 1880 there was a selective breeding programme ("stirpiculture") with parents chosen for intellectual, physical and spiritual characteristics. Fifty-eight children were born. The programme was inspired by Noyes' theology of Perfectionism, Plato's Republic, agricultural selective breeding and concerns about human heredity. It was later justified by Noyes with the writings of Darwin and Galton. The children were followed up and deemed to be superior in physique, intellect, health and other characteristics. Though it attracted attention in its day, the experiment had little influence on the later eugenic movements in the USA and the UK. It is argued that this was because the Community's system of "complex marriage" and the arranged matings were an unacceptably radical challenge to the conventional notions of love and marriage which dominated these later eugenics movements. The first generation of descendants' attempts to bury aspects of the history of the Community also contributed a lack of knowledge of the experiment and its outcome.

Consanguinity↗
PubMed1998

Eugenics and birth control: contraceptive provision in North Wales, 1918-1939.

The close relationship between the provision of birth control advice and the ideology of eugenics deserves closer attention. This paper focuses on the enthusiasm for eugenic ideas amongst an influential section of the medical profession and their ability to initiate contraceptive provision. A study of North Wales suggests that clinic provision in the interwar period reflected the enthusiasm or hostility of the medical profession more closely than the needs or demands of the female population, and illustrates how, for some doctors, the issue of contraception was seen in the wider context of the nation's health.

Contraception↗
PubMed1993

A scale of attitudes toward the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation.

As part of a larger study of the attitudes of diverse samples towards the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation, a 32-item summated rating scale was developed as a contemporary, brief, easy to administer and score, and psychometrically sound instrument. Data were collected and analysed that indicated satisfactory item characteristics and reliability, and initial support for the content and construct validities of the scale. Analyses of social desirability data revealed that scale scores were not influenced by the subjects' desire to adhere to socially desirable expectations. The scale should be useful for the investigation of questions concerning the formation, structure and correlates of attitudes toward the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation, and the relationship of these attitudes to contemporary mental retardation policies and practices.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Francis Galton: and eugenics today.

Eugenics can be defined as the use of science applied to the qualitative and quantitative improvement of the human genome. The subject was initiated by Francis Galton with considerable support from Charles Darwin in the latter half of the 19th century. Its scope has increased enormously since the recent revolution in molecular genetics. Genetic files can be easily obtained for individuals either antenatally or at birth; somatic gene therapy has been introduced for some rare inborn errors of metabolism; and gene manipulation of human germ-line cells will no doubt occur in the near future to generate organs for transplantation. The past history of eugenics has been appalling, with gross abuses in the USA between 1931 and 1945 when compulsory sterilization was practised; and in Germany between 1933 and 1945 when mass extermination and compulsory sterilization were performed. To prevent such abuses in the future statutory bodies, such as a genetics commission, should be established to provide guidance and rules of conduct for use of the new information and technologies as applied to the human genome.

Eugenics↗