Eugenics in America, Past and Present

Today on NPR there is a story about the eugenics movement in the United States in the 1920s. This group had the hubris to claim the right to chose who may or may not procreate in the name of improving the gene pool of the human race. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party picked up on the plan in 1932 and made it law in Germany. After the war, the connection to Nazis made anything with the name eugenics on it too hot to touch. But the principles of the eugenics movement didn’t fade away.

While NPR talks about how evil and over with the movement was, they’re only half right. The forced sterilization of people based on arbitrary criteria was and is still an act of ultimate evil. But the principles of American eugenics are still practiced today under other names. People all across the American political spectrum, from extreme left to hard right, agree on the idea that they can chose who should have children in the interest of improving the gene pool. They just changed the names of the front organizations.

You won’t find out which organization is eugenic in philosophy by listening to their public press releases. To learn the philosophical principles behind a modern organization, you have to evaluate their practices. From local social clubs who limit their membership based on arbitrary criteria to national organizations. that work to reduce the procreation of minorities and undesirables, modern eugenics minded organizations. abound in America.

One example from my own life, when my wife and I were married, she was nineteen, Bertha turned twenty after our daughter was conceived. On the paperwork we received from Planned Parenthood offering obstetric and gynecological assistance, our baby was listed and an unwanted teenage pregnancy. As far as Bertha and I were concerned, no baby ever born was more wanted than our Deborah. But we didn’t have enough money to buy health insurance to cover the prenatal, delivery and postnatal medical care. Therefore, Planned Parenthood didn’t want us to procreate. The criterion used to decide our fitness for procreation was the balance of our bank account and the color of our skin, we only qualified on skin.

Whenever you are asked to support any organization, don’t look only at their press releases and public fundraising statements. Look at the actual effects of their service. Unless you support eugenics, you may be paying for things you oppose.