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Eugenics was and continues to be a controversial issue due to the pressure radical eugenicists put on the government to pass legislation that would restrict the liberties of the people who had traits that could be considered undesirable. Specifically, the ERO dedicated its resources to the restriction of immigrants and the forced sterilization of individuals with undesirable characteristics. They promoted their ideas through the distribution of propaganda that came in the form of images and information packets.

Something else that caused tension within and surrounding the ERO was Harry H. Laughlin's radical policy suggestions. He was known for presenting fraudulent evidence to support policies of forced sterilization and was known for dogmatism. For instance, after being appointed to House committee for immigration, Harry H. Laughlin attempted to convince the committee that there were lower quality genes coming from southern and eastern parts of Europe. Consequently, the Johnson-Reed Act was passed in 1924 which prevented immigration from these areas. Harry Laughlin also advocated for compulsory sterilization on the state level. Over 35 states approved of these laws and numerous people were sterilized before the laws were repealed.https://science.sciencemag.org/content/294/5540/59 Furthermore, the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and their use of and belief in eugenics led to opposition to the American program. The ERO finally being closed in 1939. Harry Laughlin's policies were used in Germany where forced sterilization laws were passed. The result of this law was the sterilization of 400,000 people.

Herbert Spencer Jennings from Johns Hopkins University criticized Laughlin's data which was used to justify restrictions on immigration. Other critics challenged the claims of Eugenicists that there was a genetic influence from certain groups of people. Anthropologist Franz Boas from Columbia University claimed that Laughlin used racism masqueraded as science.https://science.sciencemag.org/content/294/5540/59

Many scholars criticized how data was obtained and further used to justify the claims from the Eugenics Record Office. Major criticism came from the Galton Laboratory. Critics mentioned data obtained by Eugenicists lacked an approach free from bias. They also claimed the data did not match Mendelian Genetics. For instance, one main critique was the labeling of heterozygotes. Heterozygotes were sometimes labeled intermediate, while other times heterozygotes were labeled normal. According to the Galton Laboratory, the inconsistency in data showed the carelessness of their approach. Furthermore, a major critic of Eugenics, A.M. Carr-Saunders of Britain, mentioned Eugenicists were incapable of providing a distinction between biological heredity and the environment. He claimed social factors were largely dismissed by Eugenicists.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bio_facpubs/5/?utm_source=openscholarship.wustl.edu%2Fbio_facpubs%2F5&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages