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56-707: The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) was established in 1929 by the eugenicist Guy Irving Burch . In the early 1930s, PRB shared office space with the Population Association of America , which was created in May 1931 in New York City , but the PRB soon moved to Washington, D.C. In 1945, the PRB began to publish the Population Bulletin , which brought current population data to the attention of

112-600: A progressive social movement in the 19th century, in contemporary usage in the 21st century, the term is closely associated with scientific racism . New, liberal eugenics seeks to dissociate itself from old, authoritarian eugenics by rejecting coercive state programs and relying on parental choice. Eugenic programs included both positive measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and negative measures, such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction. In other words, positive eugenics

168-439: A Eugenic Philosophy" framed eugenics as a social philosophy —a philosophy with implications for social order . That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits ("positive eugenics") or reduced rates of sexual reproduction or sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits ("negative eugenics"). In addition to being practiced in

224-465: A cause of physical and social pathology as much as a defense against it. "When under any kind of noxious influence an organism becomes debilitated, its successors will not resemble the healthy, normal type of the species, with capacities for development, but will form a new sub-species, which, like all others, possesses the capacity of transmitting to its offspring, in a continuously increasing degree, its peculiarities, these being morbid deviations from

280-646: A focus on intelligence. Early critics of the philosophy of eugenics included the American sociologist Lester Frank Ward , the English writer G. K. Chesterton , and Scottish tuberculosis pioneer and author Halliday Sutherland . Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics", Chesterton's 1917 book Eugenics and Other Evils , and Franz Boas ' 1916 article " Eugenics " (published in The Scientific Monthly ) were all harshly critical of

336-610: A group known as The Famous Five , also pushed for various eugenic policies. Following the Mexican Revolution , the eugenics movement gained prominence in Mexico. Seeking to change the genetic make-up of the country's population, proponents of eugenics in Mexico focused primarily on rebuilding the population, creating healthy citizens, and ameliorating the effects of perceived social ills such as alcoholism, prostitution, and venereal diseases. Mexican eugenics, at its height in

392-724: A number of countries, eugenics was internationally organized through the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations . Its scientific aspects were carried on through research bodies such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics , the Cold Spring Harbor Carnegie Institution for Experimental Evolution , and the Eugenics Record Office . Politically,

448-476: A wide but unfortunate influence." Glass's prediction was correct. Burch and Pendell's book was enormously influential, inspiring Road to Survival by William Vogt and Our Plundered Planet by Fairfield Osborn (son of Henry Fairfield Osborn ), which in turn inspired The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich . It was also a major inspiration for the population activities of Hugh Moore . While advocating population control overseas, Burch advocated eugenics in

504-661: Is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged, for example, the eminently intelligent, the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning. Negative eugenics aimed to eliminate, through sterilization or segregation, those deemed physically, mentally, or morally "undesirable". This includes abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning. Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive; in Nazi Germany, for example, abortion

560-423: Is artificially pieced together of bits of mental hygiene, child guidance, nutrition, speech development and correction, family problems, wealth consumption, food preparation, household technology, and horticulture. A nursery school and a school for little children are also included. The institute is actually justified in an official publication by the profound question of a girl student who is reported as asking, “What

616-490: Is the connection of Shakespeare with having a baby?” The Vassar Institute of Euthenics bridges this gap! Eugenicist Charles Benedict Davenport noted in his article "Euthenics and Eugenics," reprinted in Popular Science Monthly : Thus the two schools of euthenics and eugenics stand opposed, each viewing the other unkindly. Against eugenics it is urged that it is a fatalistic doctrine and deprives life of

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672-567: The Aktion T4 campaign, is understood by historians to have paved the way for the Holocaust . "All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and human cloning shall be prohibited." Hungarian Constitution "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority." The first and most fundamental article of German basic law By

728-841: The Annie E. Casey Foundation , the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , the United States Census Bureau , and the World Health Organization . The PRB partners with about 80 other organizations all around the world, in countries like Sudan, Egypt, and Uganda, to name a few. These partners vary in foci and location, ranging from renowned research institutions such as the International Center for Research on Women to public education institutions such as

784-702: The Catholic Church was an opponent of state-enforced sterilizations, but accepted isolating people with hereditary diseases so as not to let them reproduce. Attempts by the Eugenics Education Society to persuade the British government to legalize voluntary sterilization were opposed by Catholics and by the Labour Party . The American Eugenics Society initially gained some Catholic supporters, but Catholic support declined following

840-591: The Industrial Revolution have resulted in an increased propagation of deleterious traits and genetic disorders . Compulsory sterilization , also known as forced or coerced sterilization, refers to any government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done by surgical or chemical means. Purported justifications for compulsory sterilization have included population control , eugenics, limiting

896-635: The Population Reference Bureau in New York in 1929 and moved it to Washington, D.C. shortly thereafter. He was the co-author, with the sociologist, Elmer Pendell, of a self-published 1945 book titled Population Roads to Peace or War , which was republished by Penguin in 1947 as Human Breeding and Survival . The geneticist Bentley Glass described the book as "well written and interesting in style," but "loose and uncritical in analysis and opinion." He predicted that it would "exert

952-533: The University of South Florida . The Population Reference Bureau has many capabilities in providing information to individuals all around the world regarding population, health, and the environment. The organization specializes in the translation of the population demographics and health research, the analysis of the United States and international demographics, social and economic trends , and expanding

1008-510: The founding father of Singapore , actively promoted eugenics as late as 1983. In 1984, Singapore began providing financial incentives to highly educated women to encourage them to have more children. For this purpose was introduced the "Graduate Mother Scheme" that incentivized graduate women to get married as much as the rest of their populace. The incentives were extremely unpopular and regarded as eugenic, and were seen as discriminatory towards Singapore's non-Chinese ethnic population. In 1985,

1064-453: The 1930 papal encyclical Casti connubii . In this, Pope Pius XI explicitly condemned sterilization laws: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason." In fact, more generally, "[m]uch of

1120-490: The 1930s, influenced the state's health, education, and welfare policies. The scientific reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin used eugenics as a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany . Adolf Hitler had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein Kampf in 1925 and emulated eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been pioneered in

1176-704: The Anglican clergymen William Inge and James Peile both wrote for the Eugenics Education Society. Inge was an invited speaker at the 1921 International Eugenics Conference , which was also endorsed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Patrick Joseph Hayes . Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for eugenicists, with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York City. Eugenic policies in

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1232-652: The Calvary Officers' Training School in Texas, and Columbia University in New York. He was heavily influenced by such books as The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant (1916), The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy by Lothrop Stoddard (1920), Mankind at the Crossroads by Edward Murray East (1923), and Standing Room Only? by Edward A. Ross (1927). Burch established

1288-820: The Population Reference Bureau include; Demographic and Socioeconomic Trends in the Appalachian region of the United States, Combatting Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors in Youth across Latin America and the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, and their current featured project; Evidence to End Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting across the globe. Guy Irving Burch Guy Irving Burch (1899 – January 13, 1951)

1344-462: The United States were first implemented by state-level legislators in the early 1900s. Eugenic policies also took root in France, Germany, and Great Britain. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, the eugenic policy of sterilizing certain mental patients was implemented in other countries including Belgium, Brazil, Canada , Japan and Sweden . Frederick Osborn 's 1937 journal article "Development of

1400-656: The United States once he took power. Some common early 20th century eugenics methods involved identifying and classifying individuals and their families, including the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women , homosexuals, and racial groups (such as the Roma and Jews in Nazi Germany ) as "degenerate" or "unfit", and therefore led to segregation, institutionalization, sterilization, and even mass murder . The Nazi policy of identifying German citizens deemed mentally or physically unfit and then systematically killing them with poison gas, referred to as

1456-723: The United States to increase the birthrate among high-IQ parents and reduce it among low-IQ parents. He also campaigned against immigration to the United States both before and after World War II. Burch was a member of the Population Association of America , the American Eugenics Society , the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and the Sons of the American Revolution . Burch married Wilhelmine Taylor in 1920, with whom he had two daughters. He died at

1512-444: The age of 51 from complications of a heart ailment. Eugenics Eugenics ( / j uː ˈ dʒ ɛ n ɪ k s / yoo- JEN -iks ; from Ancient Greek εύ̃ (eû)  'good, well' and -γενής (genḗs)  'born, come into being, growing/grown') is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population . Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter

1568-865: The child was deemed incapable of living a Spartan life, the child was usually killed in a chasm near the Taygetus mountain known as the Apothetae . Further trials intended to discern a child's fitness included bathing them in wine and exposing them to the elements to fend for themselves, with the intention of ensuring that only those considered strongest survived and procreated. And so selective infanticide seems to have been as widespread in Ancient Rome as it had already long been in Athens . The term eugenics and its modern field of study were first formulated by Francis Galton in 1883, directly drawing on

1624-610: The disabled at home. Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century. More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations were advanced by the controversial psychologist Richard Lynn , notably in his 1996 book Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations , which argued that changes in selection pressures and decreased infant mortality since

1680-426: The doctrines; it comprehends them both. [...] [I]n the generations to come, the teachings and practice of euthenics [...] [may] yield greater result because of the previous practice of the principles of eugenics. The more rational the race becomes, the better roads, ships, tools, machines, foods, medicines and the like it will produce to aid itself, though it will need them less. The more sagacious and just and humane

1736-596: The early geneticists were not themselves Darwinians. Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities and received funding from various sources. Organizations were formed to win public support for and to sway opinion towards responsible eugenic values in parenthood, including the British Eugenics Education Society of 1907 and the American Eugenics Society of 1921. Both sought support from leading clergymen and modified their message to meet religious ideals. In 1909,

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1792-451: The end of World War II , many eugenics laws were abandoned, having become associated with Nazi Germany . H. G. Wells , who had called for "the sterilization of failures" in 1904, stated in his 1940 book The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting For? that among the human rights, which he believed should be available to all people, was "a prohibition on mutilation , sterilization, torture , and any bodily punishment". After World War II,

1848-547: The frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fertility of people and groups they considered inferior, or promoting that of those considered superior. The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom, and then spread to many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and most European countries (e.g. Sweden and Germany ). In this period, people from across

1904-667: The globe, mainly focused in the United States, and parts of the developing world including Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Projects in the United States vary from analyses of demographic and economic data, projects aiding collecting data for the American Community Survey , and studying factors of aging and factors of health in children. International projects focus on learning about health and disease for at risk populations, family planning and reproductive health, and further using this learned knowledge to establish programs to improve communities. Current projects of

1960-454: The mentally ill), compulsory sterilization , forced abortions or forced pregnancies , ultimately culminating in genocide . By 2014, gene selection (rather than "people selection") was made possible through advances in genome editing , leading to what is sometimes called new eugenics , also known as "neo-eugenics", "consumer eugenics", or "liberal eugenics"; which focuses on individual freedom and allegedly pulls away from racism, sexism or

2016-452: The midst of a severe mental epidemic; of a sort of black death of degeneration and hysteria, and it is natural that we should ask anxiously on all sides: 'What is to come next?" Max Simon Nordau (1892) The idea of progress was at once a social, political and scientific theory. The theory of evolution, as described in Darwin's The Origin of Species , provided for many social theorists

2072-402: The movement advocated measures such as sterilization laws. In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness. Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure " Nordic race " or " Aryan " genetic pool and the eventual elimination of "unfit" races. Many leading British politicians subscribed to

2128-579: The necessary scientific foundation for the idea of social and political progress. The terms evolution and progress were in fact often used interchangeably in the 19th century. The rapid industrial, political and economic progress in 19th-century Europe and North America was, however, paralleled by a sustained discussion about increasing rates of crime, insanity, vagrancy, prostitution, and so forth. Confronted with this apparent paradox, evolutionary scientists, criminal anthropologists and psychiatrists postulated that civilization and scientific progress could be

2184-498: The normal form – gaps in development, malformations and infirmities" Dysgenics refers to any decrease in the prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or generally adaptive to their environment due to selective pressure disfavouring their reproduction. In 1915 the term was used by David Starr Jordan to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving

2240-676: The opposition to eugenics during that era, at least in Europe, came from the right." The eugenicists' political successes in Germany and Scandinavia were not at all matched in such countries as Poland and Czechoslovakia , even though measures had been proposed there, largely because of the Catholic church's moderating influence. "Any new set of conditions which renders a species' food and safety very easily obtained, seems to lead to degeneration" Ray Lankester (1880) "We stand now in

2296-521: The original nature that is bred into man, the better schools, laws, churches, traditions and customs it will fortify itself by. There is no so certain and economical a way to improve man's environment as to improve his nature. According to Plutarch , in Sparta every proper citizen's child was inspected by the council of elders, the Gerousia , which determined whether or not the child was fit to live. If

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2352-514: The platform for general database research. The Population Reference Bureau offers an annual World Population Data Sheet , which is a chart containing data from 200 countries concerning important demographic and health variables, such as total population, fertility rates, infant mortality rates, HIV/AIDS prevalence, and contraceptive use. The PRB's online data allows users to search a database of hundreds of demographic, health, economic, and environmental variables for countries and regions all around

2408-425: The political spectrum espoused eugenic ideas. Consequently, many countries adopted eugenic policies, intended to improve the quality of their populations' genetic stock. Historically, the idea of eugenics has been used to argue for a broad array of practices ranging from prenatal care for mothers deemed genetically desirable to the forced sterilization and murder of those deemed unfit. To population geneticists ,

2464-695: The practice of "imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a national, ethnical, racial or religious] group" fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons". Lee Kuan Yew ,

2520-464: The prevention and removal of contagious disease and parasites . In a New York Times article of May 23, 1926, Rose Field notes of the description, "the simplest [is] efficient living". It is also described as "a right to environment", commonly as dual to a "right of birth" that correspondingly falls under the purview of eugenics. The influential historian of education Abraham Flexner questions its scientific value in stating: [T]he “science”

2576-547: The public and policy makers. The PRB received a three-year grant from the Ford Foundation in 1952. At that point, its Board of Trustees included the biologist C.C. Little , Assistant Secretary of Commerce Samuel W. Anderson , and the demographer Kingsley Davis . Robert C. Cook took over as director after Burch's death in 1951. The PRB receives support from a number of foundations, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies. Examples of such funding include

2632-438: The public from the PRB include population bulletins and customizable training and educational materials, presented through visual, written and online publications. The method used by the Population Reference Bureau involves focusing on educating people within the project areas, and then utilizing them to make changes within populations. The Population Reference Bureau has both past and current programs and service projects around

2688-430: The rapidly growing movement. Several biologists were also antagonistic to the eugenics movement, including Lancelot Hogben . Other biologists who were themselves eugenicists, such as J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher , however, also expressed skepticism in the belief that sterilization of "defectives" (i.e. a purely negative eugenics) would lead to the disappearance of undesirable genetic traits. Among institutions,

2744-700: The recent work delineating natural selection by his half-cousin Charles Darwin . He published his observations and conclusions chiefly in his influential book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development . Galton himself defined it as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations". The first to systematically apply Darwinism theory to human relations, Galton believed that various desirable human qualities were also hereditary ones, although Darwin strongly disagreed with this elaboration of his theory. And it should also be noted that many of

2800-524: The spread of HIV , and ethnic genocide . Eugenic feminism was a current of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics. Originally coined by the Lebanese-British physician and vocal eugenicist Caleb Saleeby , the term has since been applied to summarize views held by prominent feminists of Great Britain and the United States. Some early suffragettes in Canada, especially

2856-400: The stimulus toward effort. Against euthenics the other side urges that it demands an endless amount of money to patch up conditions in the vain effort to get greater efficiency. Which of the two doctrines is true? The thoughtful mind must concede that, as is so often the case where doctrines are opposed, each view is partial, incomplete and really false. The truth does not exactly lie between

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2912-478: The term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without altering allele frequencies ; for example, British-Indian scientist J. B. S. Haldane wrote in 1940 that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent." Debate as to what exactly counts as eugenics continues today. Early eugenicists were mostly concerned with factors of measured intelligence that often correlated strongly with social class. Although it originated as

2968-753: The theories of eugenics. Winston Churchill supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organization. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty. As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings , birth control , promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions , segregation (both racial segregation and sequestering

3024-445: The world, such as the Middle East, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The database provides scholarly articles about an assortment of topics, ranging from noncommunicable diseases and nutrition to the labor force and family planning. The PRB also publishes a Population Bulletins , information about demographic concepts to help in educating the public on population studies. Among these, other data and population tools available to

3080-547: Was an American eugenicist and the founding director of the Population Reference Bureau . Burch coined the phrase "population explosion" during the 1930s, when demographers in the United States and Western Europe were warning of imminent population decline. After World War II , he became a proponent of global population control. Burch was born in Clayton, NM in 1899. He attended Culver Military Training Academy in Indiana,

3136-447: Was illegal for women deemed by the state to be fit. Euthenics ( / j uː ˈ θ ɛ n ɪ k s / ) is the study of improvement of human functioning and well-being by improvement of living conditions . "Improvement" is conducted by altering external factors such as education and the controllable environments , including environmentalism , education regarding employment , home economics , sanitation , and housing , as well as

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