Essay about Human and Eugenics

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Eugenics:
The Truth in the Madness

Psychology of Personality
Felix Smith
November 25, 2012

Abstract
Eugenics is a specific belief about humanity and its breeding patterns. Within the field of eugenics, many scientists developed theories and some have attempted to implement strategies through which the human race should continue. Eugenics is a belief in selective breeding between specific people, and even that certain human beings should not be allowed to reproduce, under any circumstances. Although eugenics has many controversies, there is a great depth of truth developed over the years inside its madness.

In a briefing, Eugenics is selective breeding to improve the human race. Sources exist dating back far into the past supporting the concept of Eugenics. Although there has been much controversy from the beginning, there is a lot of potential from implementing this field of behavioral genetics. Disregarding all human emotions and feelings, Eugenics is most likely the best way to generate a greater future for humanity. From a completely Utilitarian viewpoint, in which maximizing happiness is most important, selecting those who can reproduce to stop infectious diseases and mutations is the best overall strategy for the population. “During the early 20th century, many states passed laws permitting involuntary sterilizations to advance eugenics principles. The main targets of these programs were women who were mentally retarded or otherwise considered feebleminded” (Borrero). Of course the nation would not have this, and “in response, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare developed protective regulations and a standardized consent form for all publicly funded sterilizations in 1976” (Borreno). “The measurement of putative functional sequelae has been a consistent thread in the modern discourse on intellectual disability. After the early work of Seguin and Howe, it found even greater systematization with IQ testing technologies and the expansion of the category of feeble-mindedness and in eugenics” (Simpson 546). Simpson further discusses “emphasizing the capacity for development of intellectually disabled individuals and the continuity between those of normal and retarded levels of intelligence” (Simpson 542). Simpson addresses the varying meanings of different words to explain and define lack of common intelligence. “This approach accords with a view of idiocy as a mental deficiency, in other words, a quantitative difference from the norm” (Simpson 542). If idiots are unstable and viewed so differently, why should they be allotted all of the same privileges as human beings with heightened or average levels of intelligence? “Jackson argues that with the rise of eugenics a new model came to replace this one, which regarded idiots as pathological and different in kind to the normal population” (Simpson 542). Certain people do not deserve to pass on their genes, for the sake of all humanity. A major force from the past having a large impact on history, which pertained to eugenics, would be Hitler. Hitler, as everyone in this world knows and understands, was not necessarily a good person to say the least, but his beliefs rooted deeply from eugenics in his desires to diminish races. By slaughtering a great many, he attempted to prevent the spread of Judaism. Hitler didn’t believe in stopping people with mental disabilities or physical diseases, but more so, what he believed to be an inferior race. Regardless of the desires behind the insanity of Hitler, he was an incredibly monumental piece in the foundation of eugenics. Eugenics is the concept of preventing bad traits from spreading across all humanity, and to Hitler that was the Jews and Judaism was the evil. Eugenics is “the belief that evil is identical to a kind of brain state, namely a defective one” (Webel 86). “One of the ugliest and best-kept secrets of psychology’s past is its intimate connection with the eugenics movement” (Kim
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