Eugenics is the selection of human beings based on their hereditary characteristics with the aim of improving future generations.
The term was created by the English scientist Francis Galton (1822 - 1911) in 1883.
The word eugenics derives from the Greek and means "good in origin or well born".
Eugenics argues that superior races and better strains manage to prevail in a way more suited to the environment.
Thus, it seeks to apply the theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) to the human species.
Historic
The practice of eugenics is old. For example, Plato, in "The Republic", defended the method as a way to improve human beings through selective permission to life.
For the philosopher, human reproduction should be controlled and monitored by the State.
Before First World War, this theory received unrestricted support from politicians and scientists and composed the legislation of 30 North American states until the middle of the 20th century.
The questions only occurred at the end of the
Second World War, in which the Nazis were accused of compulsorily sterilizing 140,000 Jews and killing 6 million in concentration camps.Studies
Eugenics has been the object of study by many scientists and weighers.
As a science, eugenics occupied the center of debate and scientific research in the early 1900s. The objective was to determine how human characteristics were inherited and how they influenced the social environment.
For example, Francis Galton proposes a system of arranged marriages in which the result would be a better endowed race, an action called positive eugenics.
Meanwhile, negative eugenics is the elimination of the inappropriate individual.
The ideas of genetic perfection were based on the theories of Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882), about the origin and evolution of species and natural selection by the environment.
Studies regained strength with the rediscovery of the works of Gregor Mendel (1822 - 1884), who managed to prove the transmission of characteristics between generations.
Another eugenics enthusiast was the mathematician Karl Pearson (1857 - 1936), who created biometrics and perfected the studies that support statistics in biology.
He still believed that the high birthrates of poor people were a threat to civilization and, to avoid a collapse, the superior races must supplant the inferior ones.
Learn more, read also:
- Natural selection
- Darwinism
Nazi eugenics
The American ideas seduced the members of the Nazi Party who, from 1930 onwards, began the work to eliminate individuals considered inferior and used sterilization.
Nazi racial hygiene surpassed birth prevention and supported the construction of concentration camps where Jews were industrially eliminated.
Only during the Nuremberg trials was eugenics stigmatized and the US withdrew the practice from its official policy, changing institute names and condemning sterilization activities.
Laws supporting eugenics were repealed in the US starting in 1973.
Eugenics in Brazil
Brazil was the first country in South America to adopt the ideas of eugenics.
It was based on the racism and in justifying the end of immigration as a means of guaranteeing a superior race.
With this thought, Rio de Janeiro hosted in 1929 the First Congress of Eugenics in Brazil and the discussion permeated biological and social issues.
Read too:
- Heredity
- racism in Brazil
