Eugenics in America
July 14, 2008 @ 2:46 pm by Noble LieEugenics was very popular in the United States, even after Hitler made it a dirty word. Many states had adopted eugenics programs, forcing sterilization on “undesirables” on the idea that the last thing the world needed was more [Indians|Blacks|Mexicans|retarded|poor] people.
Eugenics is still practiced, but through less overt means (ie, they use social/economic pressure rather than force). Margaret Sanger of Planned Parenthood fame was a supporter of eugenics, and as Michael Parenti points out in one of his talks, abortion was always acceptable in right wing circles because it meant less minority children (poor people have more abortions than rich people) until it was recognized that it was an issue that could be used to bring in Catholic Democrats (formerly a strong backing — think Kennedy).
North Carolina and California were the two biggest offenders in state-sponsored sterilization in the United States. The following is a brave feature by the Winston-Salem Journal, a North Carolina paper, on their state’s eugenics program. This was the feature that got me interested in this topic to begin with. I’ve yet to see a publication in open-minded, freedom-loving California which has spoken as candidly about our state’s scientific oppression.
Tags: eugenics
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Fascinating and horrible.
Comment by Paul M. Peterson — July 17, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
I thought that was a brave feature, considering it is a not often talked about part of our history. There was at least one Nazi doctor (probably more) that saved their lives in the Nuremburg trials because they could point to scientists in the United States doing the same research with the same methods.
A great book on eugenics programs in America is War Against the Weak by Edwin Black. They were funded by and answered to those big foundations we keep seeing crop up: the Carnegie Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation (who gave funds to Mengele), and the Harriman fortune (Hitler got major funding from Prescott Bush via Brown Brothers Harriman). I’m going to start putting “book reports” up here too, when I can get the time and motivation together.
Today eugenics hides under the names “genetic research” and “bioethics.” Much of it is still funded by the same foundations… Another big one appears to be the Tides Foundation, which appears to be a big slush fund for all these foundations. I know at least one clinic that has gotten a big payout from Tides to move to computerized medical records, which I can’t help but think about how much more efficient that is than the punch card systems that Hitler had to rely on (detailed in IBM and the Holocaust, by the same author). The goals have not changed in my opinion; the public relations behind it has. The reason is still “clearing the weeds” from the human garden, in the (supposed) words of Margaret Sanger.
Comment by Noble Lie — July 18, 2008 @ 11:39 am