Eugenics and Family
Eugenics, Economics, and the Family
Rationale Behind the German Eugenics Movement
A Bavarian physician by the name of Wilhelm Schallmayer (1857-1919) believed that the eugenics movement in Germany, prior to the rule of Hitler, would raise national efficiency and allow Germany to enter into a superior culture. Unlike many of the so-called eugenicists that followed him, Schallmayer did not fully believe in an Aryan race. He was more concerned with “saving the economically and socially better-situated calsses from biological extinction and his desire to limit the number of unproductive types in the interest of national efficiency were a common denominator uniting both racist and nonracist eugenicists within the German movement”.
Schallmayer focused his eugenic studies on three main areas with which to support his claim:
<bold>Social Context</bold>- Around the time Schallmayer was studying eugenics, major industrial breakthroughs had taken place in Germany. With these industrial movements came a labor party brought about by Marxist theories which the upper classes viewed as a possible threat along with febble-minded individuals.
Medical Context- Some medical professionals, including Schallmayer, began to look at hereditary in the context of how indivduals develop certain disorders which can negatively affect a society. Many physicians began to promote better gene matching between individuals in order for disorders such as mental illness and epilepsy to be estingished and the German state to grow stronger.
Selectionist Context- Schallmayer began to develop a strong understanding to the work of Darwin. He was able to affiliate natural selection to human beings and look at how the indivduals that did not mesh well with an industrial country were the unfit species.
Modern Eugenics
Society today seems to be engulfed with improving their current situations in life and modeling themselves after others. But what would a specific person constitute as perfect? It could be a physical feature to make them more attractive, an indestructable physice for dominating athletic events, or it could even be as subtle as making people see colors for the first time. When eugenics was brought into the mainstream by Nazi scientists, there was an outcry from people around the world about the Germans trying to create the perfect race. Now, the notion of creating a perfect person free of disease and flaws some how has become a good thing. Enhancements are starting off as a theorputic device in order to help people with certain diseases, but as the American consumer is becoming more willing to pay for anything to help their image, it is only a matter of time before theropy turns to a necessity for the rich.
Along with the monetary aspect of human enhancement, there is the moral and ethical questions of:
- Why should we do it?
- Is it worth it?
- What are the risks involved for myself and others?
Eugenics and the Family
- Many eugenicists viewed population control as a vehicle for modernization, the introduction of liberal democracy, and, if properly pursued, world peace.
- Two directions had formed: an outward view focusing on the global framework and an inward view focusing on the family.
- Many eugenicists blamed racialized population subdivisions, principally those in the Third World, for resource depletion, skyrocketing fertility, and environmental degradation.
- Negative Eugenics- marriage restrictions, immigration quotas and compulsory sterilizations.
- Positive Eugenics- concentrated on encouraging those deemed fit to reproduce in higher numbers.
