Eugenics

I've been reading Better for all the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity by Harry Bruinius and it reminds me of the textbook scandal in Texas. Such an outcry was made by those who didn't like the choices made by the powers that be as to what is important for our children to learn and what isn't - yet we make these choices all the time and many things that have tainted the past of nations is often ignored when it comes time to write the history books.
About a year ago, my husband and I watched the dvd, "Expelled." It was a documentary about the persecution endured by professors at American universities who believe in Intelligent Design. Many have lost their jobs or have been overlooked for jobs or promotions due to their beliefs. The dvd also made a case that tied Hitler and his intentional plan to exterminate Jews and other "undesirables" to evolution. Many followers of Darwin said that this was crazy and insisted that the makers of the dvd issue an apology for trying to connect Hitler with Darwin.

They should read Harry Bruinius's book. Francis Galton, founder of the Eugenics movement, was Charles Darwin's younger cousin. After reading Origin of the Species he soon developed his own ideas from his cousin's and wrote Hereditary Genius. His cousin praised his work and encouraged Galton in his pursuits of improving mankind. Galton's development of Eugenics theory grew in England but really took off in the United States. Illinois and California had forced sterilization laws for "imbeciles." Harry Laughlin, a schoolteacher from Missouri, helped couch eugenics in religious terms, and appealed to American's desire for a "better baby" or a "fitter family." The extent to which these ideas took over our culture is troubling, to say the least. When Germany was at the height of its sterilization program in 1936, the Nazi regime through Heidelberg University awarded Laughlin an honorary doctorate for his many contributions to "racial hygiene."
Americans were just as interested in creating a master "Nordic race" as the Nazis were in creating a German one - they just didn't go as far. The horrors of the Holocaust exposed the inhumane lies behind eugenics and all associated with it quickly went into hiding.
I'm about halfway through the book. In London in 1912, there was a five-day conference called the First International Congress of Eugenics. Winston Churchill was there, as was the mayor of London, the Chief Justice of England, and foreign ministers from Norway, Greece and France. Leading the conference was Major Leonard Darwin - Charles Darwin's son. The speaker from New Jersey, describing how sterilization is the best way to deal with those defective genes received the greatest attention.
At the end of the conference, Major Darwin addressed the attendees and stated the following:

The struggle might be long and the disappointments might be many. But we have seen how the long fight against ignorance ended with the triumphant acceptance of the principle of evolution in the 19th century (Applause and cheers). Eugenics is but the practical application of that principle, and might we not hope that the 20th century will in like manner be known in the future as the century when the eugenic ideal is accepted as part of the creed of civilization. It is with the object of insuring that the realization of this hope that the Congress was assembled.

Thank God for divine intervention.

(More to follow after reading more...)