USA History Of Forced Sterilizations And Eugenics! Has A Eugenics Program Operated In The United States?

The cultural background of this time in history is an important consideration when considering this aspect of science.

When the Civil War ended the Economy was in disarray, added to that was an increase in the number of immigrants arriving from the Southern States as well as those arriving from Eastern Europe.

The United States economy was extremely volatile up until the conflict of the first World War had begun. While the future of the economy was in doubt, the difference between social variations came out to the surface.

It was at this time that the Theories of social Darwinism was rising in popularity. This theory was being used to explain these social variations. Social Darwinism exploits the theory of Natural Selection from Charles Darwin and pertains it to humanity. Social Darwinism rationalizes the Survival of the Fittest Theory in relation to the competency of an Individual to endure within an Environment based on Competition.

This is used by Elitists to explain Social Discrimination by stating that Wealthy People are individuals who have a greater fitness for survival within an ambiguous economy. In other words People of Wealth have a better chance of Survival, they are more likely to conceive more productive children then People in a state of Poverty.

In Reality this is not what was occurring to the Population of the United States. Instead the rate of births for the Wealthy Elite was declining at the same time the birthrate for the poor was escalating. The Government Programs that had been introduced to help the poor was having little to no effect in combating poverty.

The result was that the Government was exploiting the idea of Scientific Management also known as Progressivism. The Progressive Activists were dependant on Science to restrict both Nature and the society of Humanity.

This new perspective of Science as a system of Transformation used the revived Science Of Genetics as a tool to social engineering. This new science would be called EUGENICS.

Eugenicists held the belief that it was Genetics that created problems to the Gene Pool of Humanity. The Theory behind Eugenics is that society had provided enough money to provide assistance for these debauched individuals. they felt that the use of Sterilization would save money in the long run. The Eugenicists used measurable facts to manufacture Scientific Evidence.

These people felt that donations and welfare would not solve the problem but only deal with the symptoms. Their belief was that Eugenics would completely abolish the Disease. The characteristics which were seen as a deterioration of the Human Gene Pool and to which the Eugenicists sought to eliminate:

Those who found themselves living in poor conditions.

Those that were below average in intelligence including those that suffered from depression.

Severe Psychiatric Disorders.

Alcohol Addiction.

Disobedience.

Corruption and Law Breakers.

Gypsies and those who held no permanent residence.

Those who engaged in Sexual Acts for money.

The Truth of the the Procedures of Eugenicists was brutally overestimated. Although Eugenic Science was based on Genetics, none of the Scientists could ever prove a Genetic Relationship to some of the characteristics that they were studying such as politeness, bluntness, etc....

What is truly shocking is that the Scientists which made such gifted interactions between Genes and Behaviour, was being done before Science even knew that DNA carried Genes. This is why those researching the Science tried to treat difficult and complex Behaviour as if it all had a single cause.

Another thing that was left out of the Eugenicists Research was the effect that the Environment had on a persons behaviour. They also tested the IQs of immigrants with tests based on a different culture altogether. That is why the First Eugenicists had to make up the results to prove that they were achieving Scientific results.

Much of what the Eugenicist's believed had come from Studies of the Alleged Decline of Genetic Stock over a period of time. One of these studies was done by the sociologist Richard Dugdale who did a study on "The Jukes" in 1877. The Jukes was a band of approximately seven hundred criminals, prostitutes and paupers.

Dugdale came to the conclusion that it was living in a bad environment which brought upon this decadence, he also believed that over time these traits could be reversed. A.H. Estabrook reexamined The Jukes in 1915 and noticed an insignificant advancement in the family. This brought him to the conclusion that certain characteristics connected with defectiveness were inherited through Genes.

The Eugenicists really had no understanding of Genetics or the methods of transferable traits. They simply formed their own definition of the transference of degenerate genes.

This would mean that desired characteristics could only occur if the children that were born were derived from marriages between families worthy of procreation. The characteristics that were found undesirable by society were always spread through dubious families. If a child were born between a worthy family and a dubious family the child would probably be mostly dubious as well, but there would be some characteristics that would be desirable.

It was World War II that brought the Science of Eugenics out into the open of Global Knowledge. It was an accepted movement in the U.S.A. before the break out of hostilities of WWII.

The American Eugenics Society set up rotunda's at State Fairs to hold "Fitter Families Contests" to promote Eugenics to the American People. The average American family encouraged the deployment of Eugenics Programs and Educational Organizations supported Eugenics, it was even expounded as Scientific Facts in the major Biology Textbooks of the time.

Eugenics rose so quickly in popularity that eighteen solutions were investigated by a Carnegie-supported study in 1911, this report provided the most pragmatic ways for the elimination of Defective Genes in the Population of Humanity.

One of the eighteen solutions to this problem was Euthanasia, The only thing that stood in the way of implementing such a plan was that the researchers thought it was too soon to implement such a program. The method most suggested for Eugenicide if it was to be carried out, would be by the use of Lethal Gas Chambers.

The choice made without resorting to carrying out a Euthanasia Program was to force segregation as well as forced sterilizations. The plan also involved in restricting who could become married by Implementing Government Restrictions.

There were people who were vehemently against Eugenics. Professor Punnett stated at the First International Congress for Eugenics in 1911:

“Except in very few cases, our knowledge of heredity in man at present is far to slight and far too uncertain to base legislation upon.”

Emma Buck and her daughter Carrie was committed to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded in Lynchburg, Virginia. Emma and Carrie were both evaluated to be feeble minded and immoral because both of them had become pregnant and gave birth to children outside of wedlock.

At only seven months of age, Carrie's daughter was also deemed to be feeble minded. Three generations of imbeciles (what is now known as mentally handicapped) in one family gave the Officials of Virginia the perfect case to test the Eugenic Sterilization Law enacted in 1924.

The Case made it to the Supreme Court which agreed:

“that Carrie Buck is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her general health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization."

The ruling which was authored by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. In support of his argument that it was more important for the State to maintain a "Pure Gene Pool" than it was for the individual to maintain their own bodily integrity. He argued thus:

We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.

No one will ever know if Carrie was in fact feeble minded, but it can be proven that it was not true that she was Promiscuous. Her child resulted from the rape of Carrie by a nephew of her Foster Parents. The reason that she was put into an Institution was to avert further embarrassment to the family.

It was also found to be true that her daughter Vivian was not an imbecile. In First Grade her report card from the Venable School in Charlottesville disclosed that the daughter of a Government labeled imbecile was able to achieve straight A's in her attitude and behaviour. The girl even managed to make the Honor Role in the Spring of 1931.

One year later the girl died from an intestinal disorder.

In 1942, the Supreme Court passed a Law which permitted the Forced Sterilization of Criminals. This did not reverse the vague conception of Eugenic Sterilization.

The Virginia General Assembly in 2001 recognized that Laws regarding Sterilization was based on Defective Science and conveyed the following:

"profound regret over the Commonwealth's role in the eugenics movement in this country and over the damage done in the name of eugenics.

There was a monument erected in 2002 to honor the memory of Carrie Buck in her hometown of Charlottesville.

There were Laws prohibiting interracial marriages in some states that went as far back as Colonial Times. After the Civil War the number of States that passed similar Laws increased. Twenty nine States had passed laws prohibiting the mixing of races through the Institution of Marriage by 1913. Twenty two of these States had very firm penalization for infractions consisting of up to $2000.00 in Fines and/or ten years imprisonment.

Eugenicists vigorously defended the old Laws on the books as well as passing new ones. The Virginia Integrity Act of 1924, which received its inspiration from Eugenicists forbid the Marriage between a White Person and anyone with even a touch of blood of any race besides Caucasian.

The Act was voted down in 1967, along with all other Laws prohibiting marriage based on race.

The entire world felt that Adolph Hitler was insane, the truth is that the idea of a Caucasian Race with blond hair and blue eyed Superior Master Race was not thought of by Hitler. This thought pattern was formed in the United States for over twenty years before Hitler rose to power.

When Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in 1924 he used numerous quotes from prominent American Eugenicists and held a comprehensive knowledge of the subject.

Hitler stated :

"“There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of immigration] are noticeable."

It was not the German Republic of which he spoke it was the United States. Hitler spoke often to his fellow Nazi's how he diligently followed the Eugenic Legislation of the United States.

Hitler also stated:

“I have studied with great interest the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, in all probability, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock.

While the Third Reich was rising in power, American Eugenicists was very open to the idea that Hitler was ready and able to implement their research on a mass scale. Joseph DeJarnette, superintendent of Virginia's Western State Hospital made a statement ten years after Virginia passed its sterilization act in 1924.

“The Germans are beating us at our own game.”

By 1934 Germany was implementing forced sterilizations at an increasing pace exceeding five thousand a month. Starting in 1940 there were thousands of Germans that were removed from their homes for the elderly, mentally handicapped, and other institutions run by the State. These people were not sterilized but they were methodically gassed.

The total ranges between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.

The number of people sterilized based on each condition.

• Inherited ineffectuality: 200,000

• Mental Illness: 80,000

• Epilepsy: 60,000

• Manic Depression: 20,000

• Serious Physical Malformation: 20,000

• Inherited Deafness: 16,000

• Inherited Alcohol Addiction: 10,000

• Inherited Blindness: 4,000

• Huntington's Chorea: 600

• THE TOTAL: 410,600

Hitler held the steadfast belief that people of Jewish Descent were an inferior race. He stated that the Jewish Population in Germany was involved in social corruption. He believed that they were involved in such social atrocities as prostitution, pornography, modern art, financial crimes, and the narcotics trade.

The Third Reich also spread propaganda of a Four Thousand year old plot by the Jewish People to dominate the world. This was due to the fact that Jewish People considered themselves God's Chosen People. The propaganda claimed that Jewish People retained no ethics or morality.

Similar to other Eugenicists, Hitler held the belief that these distinct features and values were contained within the Genes of the Jewish People. This justified in his mind the elimination of this gene pool from the General Population of Germany.

It was on January 30, 1939 that Hitler made his plan to begin the annihilation of the population of European Jews to the Reichstag known.

“In the course of my life I have often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it . . .If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation [Vernichtung] of the Jewish race in Europe”

Hitler definitely endeavored to be successful in his goal. There were hundreds of thousands of members of the Jewish Population that had been exterminated in the various concentration camps set up throughout Europe. The preferred method of Euthanasia was the American Idea of using Gas Chambers.

There was a further connection of American Eugenicists to those of the Nazi Eugenicists that virtually certified the connection. This evidence came out at the Nuremberg Trials after the war.

In their defense the Nazis quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes from the infamous 1927 Buck v. Bell trial.

We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.

To read more:

https://people.creighton.edu/~idc24708/Genes/Eugenics/History%20of%20Eugenics.htm

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