Eugenics Movement the Current Eugenics

Eugenics Movement

THE CURRENT EUGENICS MOVEMENT

It would come as a great surprise to most Americans that the so-called "pseudo-science" of eugenics is still being discussed at many levels in the United States. According to Tony Platt during a speech to the California Senate Judiciary Committee on June 24, 2003, the modern eugenics movement, based on a similar entity that emerged in Europe and the U.S. around 1900, is rooted in "assumptions about the existence of distinct biological races with Anglo-Saxon (i.e., white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) societies as the civilizing bedrock of modernity" ("The Frightening Agenda," Internet). Those who support and encourage the present eugenics movement, not only in the U.S. But elsewhere is the world, advocates "policies of segregation and apartheid in order to protect the 'well-born' from contamination," while its leaders, some of whom belong to a number of the most influential and powerful scientific bodies in existence, believe that "a variety of social successes," such as wealth, political leadership and intellectual discoveries, along with social problems linked to poverty, crime, illegitimacy and mental illness, "can be traced to inherited (and) biological attributes associated with 'racial temperament" (the Frightening Agenda," Internet).

From a medical standpoint, these views on eugenics may appear to be solidly based on current and widely-accepted scientific fact, but with a closer look, these opinions are founded solely on race, bigotry and pure ignorance. However, the inherent power behind these views has managed to convince a very large number of people that eugenics and the current movement that fosters its ideals and principles is the surest and most effective way to not only control how human beings act and live but also population growth around the globe in such places as Africa, Asia and India. A very important aspect of this movement has much to do with sterilization and the "evil of crossbreeding," a reference to inter-racial unions and marriages.

For many eugenicists or those who support eugenics as a medical practice, sterilization serves as "a way to cleanse the body politic of racial and sexual impurities" while also controlling population growth. Some eugenicists also support "limits on immigration from non-European countries, a restriction on welfare benefits to poor families and bans on inter-racial marriage" or miscegenation. As an example of the radical thinking of some supporters of eugenics, Platt refers to Mr. Charles M. Goethe, the founder and sponsor of the Eugenics Society of Northern California and the Human Betterment Foundation, as stating in 1929 that Mexicans are "eugenically as low-powered as the Negro" and that Mexicans "do not understand health rules. Being a superstitious savage, he resists them" ("The Frightening Agenda," Internet), a viewpoint that is obviously based on racial prejudice and utter ignorance of the true facts.