{"id":7895,"date":"2019-05-22T16:01:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/eugenics\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:01:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:01:49","slug":"eugenics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/eugenics\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugenics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The doctrine put forward by <a href=\"http:\/\/www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk\/Biographies\/Galton.html\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk\/Biographies\/Galton.html&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Francis Galton<\/a> (1822-1911) that encouraged breeding among persons of presumed higher moral and intellectual standing and discouraged it in the lower classes or those considered to be &#8216;inferior&#8217;. &nbsp;Eugenics was still practised in parts of western Europe until the middle of the 1970s. &nbsp;At the beginning of the 20th century, in both the UK and the US, it was considered to be a valid form of scientific practice, which indicates how changes in value judgments that determine what constitutes &#8216;normality&#8217; occur across historical time. &nbsp;In the UK, the eugenics movement received support from left-wing politicians, but was opposed by those on the right wing of the political spectrum (perhaps because it would lead to a loss of &#8216;canon fodder&#8217; for the British imperial army). &nbsp;In the US, it was readily accepted and promoted by the likes of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/alexander-graham-bell-9205497\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/alexander-graham-bell-9205497&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Graham Bell<\/a> (1847-1922), the inventor of the telephone, the civil rights lawyer <a href=\"http:\/\/law2.umkc.edu\/faculty\/projects\/ftrials\/darrow.htm\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/law2.umkc.edu\/faculty\/projects\/ftrials\/darrow.htm&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clarence Seward Darrow<\/a> ((1857-1937), and (probably most surprisingly of all) the blind and deaf education reformer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rnib.org.uk\/aboutus\/aboutsightloss\/famous\/Pages\/helenkeller.aspx\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.rnib.org.uk\/aboutus\/aboutsightloss\/famous\/Pages\/helenkeller.aspx&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Helen Keller<\/a> (1880-1968), perhaps reaching its apotheosis with the Chicago surgeon <a href=\"http:\/\/www.disabilitymuseum.org\/dhm\/lib\/detail.html?id=1236\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.disabilitymuseum.org\/dhm\/lib\/detail.html?id=1236?target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry J. Haiselden.<\/a> &nbsp;The latter, between 1915 and 1918, allowed the deaths of about six infants whom he considered to be &#8216;unfit&#8217;. &nbsp;He even went as far as exhibiting the dying infants to the media and playing himself in the infamous pro-eugenics film <span class=\"\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">T<\/span><span class=\"\" style=\"font-style: italic;\">he black stork<\/span> in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/programs\/disability\/ba_shows.dir\/children.dir\/highlights\/blacksto.html\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/programs\/disability\/ba_shows.dir\/children.dir\/highlights\/blacksto.html&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1917<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"asperger-s_syndrome\">Asperger&#8217;s syndrome<\/a>, <a href=\"mental_retardation\">Mental retardation<\/a>, <a href=\"normality\">Normality<\/a>, <a href=\"race-ethnicity\">Race-ethnicity<\/a>, <a href=\"theory_of_population_pressure\">Theory of population pressure<\/a>, <a href=\"typological_thinking\">Typological thinking<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The doctrine put forward by Francis Galton (1822-1911) that encouraged breeding among persons of presumed higher moral and intellectual standing and discouraged it in the lower classes or those considered to be &#8216;inferior&#8217;. &nbsp;Eugenics was still practised in parts of western Europe until the middle of the 1970s. &nbsp;At the beginning of the 20th century, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/eugenics\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Eugenics&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-7895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}