User:Juliadreyer126/Eugenics in the United States

Early proponents
In 1883, Sir Francis Galton first used the word eugenics to describe scientifically, the biological improvement of genes in human races. He believed that almost every trait in a human were inherited. Therefore. he believed that if the human race was to improve they must use eugenics to breed these positive genes.

In the US eugenics was largely supported after the discovery of Mendel’s law. Soon the US was taken a storm by eugenics, almost every negative characteristic of a human was looked at as part of their genetic makeup that could be changed through eugenics.

Immigration Restrictions
In the late 19th century many scientists became concerned about the population leaning to far away from the favored "Anglo-Saxon superiority" due to a rise in immigrant from Europe. This lead Dr. Charles Benedict Davenport to create one of the most important eugenics programs in the US called the Eugenics record Office. Later Dr. Davenport recruited Dr. Harry Hamilton Laughlin.

In 1921, a temporary measure was passed to slowdown the open door on immigration. However at this time the Immigration Restriction League worked with eugenicists to have stricter immigration laws. Henry Laughlin played a large role in this as he had an appointment at the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization as the lead agent in eugenics. He and many other eugenicists argued that immigrants were inferior and threatened to bring down the Anglo-Saxons. They stated that immigrants were often degenerate, had low IQs, and had shiftlessness, alcoholism and insubordination. According to Eugenicists, all these things were transmitted through genes. After Laughlin’s speech on these things, Herbert Spencer Jennings was supposed to debate against but was only given 5 minutes and was unable to discredit much of Laughlin’s speech.

There was much debate on immigration and eventually it was decided through the 1890 census that immigrants who were of Nordic or Anglo-Saxon stock were greatly favored over southern and eastern Europe, specifically Jews. According to Laughlin, Jews were genetically inferior and a racial mix of a Jew with and Anglo-Saxon would be degenerate.

Eugenics and Public Health
In the 19th century, based on a Lamarckian view, it was believed hat the damage done to people by diseases could be inherited and therefore through eugenics they could banish diseases. This was believe well on into the 20th century. Through this belief public health measures were promoted to improve health that could hopefully be inherited in future generations.

However, in the 1910s, August Weismans theory became more popular, environmentally caused changes in the body could not cause corresponding changes in the “germ plasm.” However, even believers of this theory still understood that the symptoms of some diseases in a pregnant woman could lead to birth defects, for example a high temperature. Through these beliefs it was decided that fighting infections would still lowered hereditary issues.

Pernick, M S. “Eugenics and public health in American history.” American journal of public health vol. 87,11 (1997): 1767-72. doi:10.2105/ajph.87.11.1767

Garver, K L, and B Garver. “Eugenics: past, present, and the future.” American journal of human genetics vol. 49,5 (1991): 1109-18.