The United States
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United States
- Politically Driven
- People
- American Eugenics Society
- Started in 1922
- Turned into The Society for the Study of Social BIology ion 1972
- Charles Davenport
- biologist
- founder of Eugenics Record Office in New York
- Harry Laughlin
- director of Eugenics Record Office
- statistical research
- compulsory sterilization: wanted strict laws, like California
- American Eugenics Society
- Legislation
- Immigration
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Immigrants from China into US were limited
- Gentleman’s Agreement
- Japan and US
- Congress passed a law in 1924 limiting immigration to America from any European country.
- Limited immigration to an annual amount equal to 3% of the foreign-born living in the country in 1920.
- In arguing for this legislation one Democratic congressman from West Virginia stated that, “the primary reason for the restriction of the alien stream…is the necessity for purifying and keeping pure the blood of America” (p. 97).
- Calvin Coolidge, who was vice president at the time said, “America must be kept American.
- Biological laws show…that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races” (p.97). This new Immigration Law was more restrictive of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Eugenicists considered the new law as “biological wisdom” (p. 97).
- Many reasons for opposition to immigration
- Organized labor groups
- worried that if too many people immigrated then wages would be adversely affected.
- “Staunch nativists”
- felt that foreign influences contaminated American character.
- Social workers
- wanted to deal with the disadvantages already in the country before allowing more people to cross the border.
- Assorted businessmen
- feared radicalism and they felt that immigrants would taint America with their radicalized views.
- Organized labor groups
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Marriage Laws
- In America, by 1914 more than half of the states changed their marriage laws.
- Void marriages
- Idiots
- Insane
- “unfit” people
- feeblemindedness
- people with venereal diseases.
- Epileptics
- Connecticut
- First to pass a law
- Did not allow the marriage of “the eugenically unfit” women under 45.
- Would imprison people for three years if they violated it was violated.
- First to pass a law
- Indiana’s marriage law
- Prohibited
- People with STDs
- Drunks
- The mentally deficient
- A health certificate was required for marriage
- All marriages in other states were void in Indiana.
- Prohibited
- Sterilization
- American eugenicists also played a role in sterilization laws. This law gave the states the power to force sterilization on confirmed criminals, sex offenders, idiots, the insane and epileptics to name a few. More than 15 states between 1907 and 1917 adopted sterilization laws.
- Carrie Buck vs. Bell
- Carrie declared unfit.
- Sent to the Virginia Colony for Epileptics
- Took an IQ test found her to have a mental age of 9 (Henry Goddard defines this as a “moron”
- Her mother was unfit so this means there were two generations of unfits
- Her daughter Mary is therefore unfit
- Mother and daughter both sterilized
- Carrie declared unfit.
- Skinner vs Oklahoma
- Skinner was in jail and he was forced to be sterilized
- Arrested for armed robbery and for steeling chickens (aka. Unfit)
- Skinner won
- Sterilization cannot be used as a punishment
- Oregon
- Sterilization laws on the books until 1980s
- California (San Francisco Chronicle by Abate)
- Sterilization
- 1909 legal to castrate or give a hysterectomy
- Did this to 19,000 people between 1909-1950
- Last sterilization in 1963
- Responsible for 1/3 of all sterilizations in the US
- Sterilization
- Planned Parenthood
- Founded by Margarent Sanger in 1921
- Federally funded
- Racist
- legalization of contraception (sterlization) for unfit
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEja-1emRic&feature=related
- Immigration
