Controversial movement aimed at genetic improvement by encouraging the reproduction of individuals with favored features and discouraging that of individuals with features deemed undesirable
A doctrine which holds that the human race can be "improved" by selective control of breeding to eradicate less "desirable" traits in society The supporters of eugenics argue that social problems are caused by inherited genetic traits in people which can be bred out to resolve the problem for future generations The logical conclusion of this theory is deeply racist and reactionary based on dubious research and prejudice
The scientific study of artificial selection towards desirable characteristics It evolved into a controversial movement devoted to improving the human species through the control of hereditary factors in mating
The study of the means and methods for altering humans, increasing their abilities and potentials, often with the intent of increasing them to appreciably paranormal levels
Literally "good birth" in Greek A movement prevalent in western Canada and elsewhere during the early twentieth century to prevent the reproduction of children by persons deemed to have mental deficiencies
disapproval Eugenics is the study of methods to improve the human race by carefully selecting parents who will produce the strongest children. the study of methods to improve the mental and physical abilities of the human race by choosing who should become parents - used in order to show disapproval (eugenes , from genes ). Study of human improvement by genetic means. The first thorough exposition of eugenics was made by Francis Galton, who in Hereditary Genius (1869) proposed that a system of arranged marriages between men of distinction and women of wealth would eventually produce a gifted race. The American Eugenics Society, founded in 1926, supported Galton's theories. U.S. eugenicists also supported restriction on immigration from nations with "inferior" stock, such as Italy, Greece, and countries of eastern Europe, and argued for the sterilization of insane, retarded, and epileptic citizens. Sterilization laws were passed in more than half the states, and isolated instances of involuntary sterilization continued into the 1970s. The assumptions of eugenicists came under sharp criticism beginning in the 1930s and were discredited after the German Nazis used eugenics to support the extermination of Jews, blacks, and homosexuals. See also genetics, race, social Darwinism