Eugenics

Effort to improve purported human genetic quality

A 1930s exhibit by the Eugenics Society. Some of the signs read "Healthy and Unhealthy Families", "Heredity as the Basis of Efficiency", and "Marry Wisely".

Eugenics[a] is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population.[2][3][4] Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fertility of those considered inferior, or promoting that of those considered superior.[5]

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Eugenics

Historical trajectory

* Ancient
* Jus trium liberorum
* Lex Papia Poppaea
* Jewish views on incest
* Incest in the Bible
* British eugenics
* Malthusian League
* Eugenic feminism
* Nazi eugenics
* "Racial hygiene"
* Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring
* Hereditary Health Court
* Lebensborn
* Romani Holocaust
* Aktion T4
* Doctors' Trial
* US eugenics
* Slave breeding in the US
* Eugenics Survey of Vermont
* Oneida stirpiculture
* Immigration Act of 1924
* US birth control movement
* Sterilization law in the United States
* Buck v. Bell
* Doe ex. rel. Tarlow v. District of Columbia
* Madrigal v. Quilligan
* Poe v. Lynchburg Training School & Hospital
* Skinner v. Oklahoma
* Stump v. Sparkman
* Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924
* Canadian eugenics
* The Famous Five
* Sexual Sterilization Act
* French Eugenics
* Japanese eugenics
* Hispanic eugenics
* Mexican eugenics
* Swedish sterilization program (1906–1975)
* Peruvian sterilization program (1990–2000)
* Population planning in Singapore
* Neo-eugenics
* He Jiankui genome editing incident
* Human genetic enhancement
* Religious response to assisted
reproductive technology

Pre-war academic proponents

* Bell
* Brigham
* Burbank
* Carrell
* Davenport
* Darwin (Charles)
* Darwin (Leonhard)
* DeCourcy Ward
* von Ehrenfels
* Elderton
* Evang
* Fisher
* Galton
* Gates
* Goldscheid
* Grant
* Gruber
* Günther
* Guyer
* Haldane
* Herseni
* Holmes
* Hrdlička
* Jennings
* Jordan
* Kang
* Key
* Kraepelin
* Lenz
* Lewis
* London
* Magnussen
* Manuilă
* Mittmann
* Moreira
* Munro
* Nordau
* Osborn
* Pan
* Pearson (Karl)
* Perkins
* Pérez
* Ploetz
* Quetelet
* Rainer
* Relgis
* Ross
* Schallmayer
* Scharffenberg
* Serebrovsky
* Sergi
* Slater
* Southard
* Stoddard
* Taussig
* Terman
* Tesla
* Thorndike
* Vacher de Lapouge
* Verschuer
* Yerkes

Post-war academic remnants

* Agar
* Bell (Julia)
* Blacker
* Carl
* Carter
* Cattell
* Coleman
* Darlington
* Fleischman
* Garrett
* Glad
* Hardin
* Haldane
* Hanania
* Herndon
* Huxley
* Ingle
* Itzkoff
* José Figueredo
* Kallmann
* Kirkconnell
* Koch
* Laski
* Lederberg
* Lorenz
* Ludovici
* Lundman
* Lynn
* MacEachran
* Magnussen
* Miller
* Muller
* Murray
* Nijenhuis
* Nyborg
* Osborn
* Pearson (Roger)
* Pendell
* Pitt-Rivers
* Popenoe
* Rostand
* Savulescu
* Shapiro
* Shockley
* Verschuer
* Vining Jr.
* Weiss

Pamphlets and manifestos

* Hereditary Genius (1869)
* Degeneration (1892–1893)
* Gallia (1895)
* "The Blood of the Nation" (1901/1910)
* Anticipations (1901)
* The Training of the Human Plant (1907)
* Essays in Eugenics (1909)
* Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911)
* Mankind at the Crossroads (1923)
* Daedalus (1924)
* La raza cósmica (1925)
* Marriage and Morals (1929)
* The Genetical Theory of Natural
Selection (1930)
* "Charter for Rationalists" (1932)
* Man, the Unknown (1935)
* After Us (1936)
* "Eugenics manifesto" (1939)
* New Bottles for New Wine (1950)
* The Marching Morons (1951)
* The Dance with the Devil (1958)
* Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins (1973)
* Beyondism (1987)
* Dysgenics (1996)
* Eugenics: A Reassessment (2001)
* Jewish Eugenics (2011)
* Selective Breeding and the Birth of
Philosophy (2023)

Organizations

Without significant post-war activity

* ABCL
* Alberta Eugenics Board
* AASPIM
* AES
* Carnegie Institution for Science
* Carrel Foundation
* CSHL
* Co-operative Women's Guild
* EBNC
* ERO
* Fabian Society
* Galton Laboratory
* German Society for Racial Hygiene
* Heredity Commission
* HBF
* Human Betterment League
* Immigration Restriction League
* INED
* IAAEE
* International Eugenics Conference
* IFEO
* Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
* Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
* PAA
* Progressive League
* Race Betterment Foundation
* RHA
* Rockefeller Foundation
* State Institute for Racial Biology

With significant post-war activity

* Annals of Eugenics (1954)
* CIS
* The Eugenics Review (1968)
* FREED
* HDF
* J. Soc. Political Econ. Stud.
* LCI
* Mankind Quarterly
* OpenPsych
* Project Prevention
* Repository for Germinal Choice
* Ulster Institute for Social Research

Related

* Demographic engineering
* Dysgenics
* Fujimorism
* Genetic discrimination
* History of eugenics
* Idiocracy
* Pedigree chart
* Political views of Bertrand Russell
* Political views of H. G. Wells
* Raymond Cattell bibliography
* Ronald Fisher bibliography
* Selective breeding

* History of Science portal

* v
* t
* e

The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom,[6] and then spread to many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia,[7] and most European countries (e.g., Sweden and Germany).

Historically, the idea of eugenics has been used to argue for a broad array of practices ranging from prenatal care for mothers deemed genetically desirable to the forced sterilization and murder of those deemed unfit.[5] To population geneticists, the term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without altering allele frequencies; for example, British-Indian scientist J. B. S. Haldane wrote in 1940 that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent."[8] Debate as to what qualifies as eugenics continues today.[9]

Although it originated as a progressive social movement in the 19th century,[10][11][12][13] in the 21st century the term became closely associated with scientific racism. New liberal eugenics seeks to dissociate itself from the old authoritarian varieties by rejecting coercive state programs in favor of individual parental choice.[14]

## Common distinctions

[edit]

Lester Frank Ward wrote the early paper: "Eugenics, Euthenics and Eudemics", making yet further distinctions.[15]

Eugenic programs included both positive measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and negative measures, such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction.[5][16][17]: 104–155

Positive eugenics is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged, for example, the intelligent, the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning.[18] Negative eugenics aimed to eliminate, through sterilization or segregation, those deemed physically, mentally, or morally undesirable. This includes abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning.[18] Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive; in Nazi Germany, for example, abortion was illegal for women deemed by the state to be superior.[19]

### As opposed to "euthenics"

[edit]

See also: Nature-nurture debate

Ellen Swallow Richards (left), the first female student and instructor at MIT, was one of the first to use the term, while Julia Clifford Lathrop (right) continued to promote it in the form of an interdisciplinary academic program later to be mostly absorbed into the field of home economics.

Euthenics (/juːˈθɛnɪks/) is the study of improvement of human functioning and well-being by improvement of living conditions.[20] "Improvement" is conducted by altering external factors such as education and the controllable environments, including environmentalism, education regarding employment, home economics, sanitation, and housing, as well as the prevention and removal of contagious disease and parasites.

In a New York Times article of May 23, 1926, Rose Field notes of the description, "the simplest [is] efficient living".[21] It is also described as "a right to environment",[22] commonly as dual to a "right of birth" that correspondingly falls under the purview of eugenics.[23]

Euthenics is not normally interpreted to have anything to do with changing the composition of the human gene pool by definition, although everything that affects society has some effect on who reproduces and who does not.[24]

The influential historian of education Abraham Flexner questions its scientific value in stating:

> [T]he “science” is artificially pieced together of bits of mental hygiene, child guidance, nutrition, speech development and correction, family problems, wealth consumption, food preparation, household technology, and horticulture. A nursery school and a school for little children are also included. The institute is actually justified in an official publication by the profound question of a girl student who is reported as asking, “What is the connection of Shakespeare with having a baby?” The Vassar Institute of Euthenics bridges this gap![25]

Eugenicist Charles Benedict Davenport noted in his article "Euthenics and Eugenics," reprinted in Popular Science Monthly:

> Thus the two schools of euthenics and eugenics stand opposed, each viewing the other unkindly. Against eugenics it is urged that it is a fatalistic doctrine and deprives life of the stimulus toward effort. Against euthenics the other side urges that it demands an endless amount of money to patch up conditions in the vain effort to get greater efficiency. Which of the two doctrines is true?

> The thoughtful mind must concede that, as is so often the case where doctrines are opposed, each view is partial, incomplete and really false. The truth does not exactly lie between the doctrines; it comprehends them both.

> [...] [I]n the generations to come, the teachings and practice of euthenics [...] [may] yield greater result because of the previous practice of the principles of eugenics.[26]

Along similar lines argued psychologist and early intelligence researcher Edward L. Thorndike some two years later for an understanding that better integrates eugenic study:

> The more rational the race becomes, the better roads, ships, tools, machines, foods, medicines and the like it will produce to aid itself, though it will need them less. The more sagacious and just and humane the original nature that is bred into man, the better schools, laws, churches, traditions and customs it will fortify itself by. There is no so certain and economical a way to improve man's environment as to improve his nature.[27]

## Historical eugenics

[edit]

Main article: History of eugenics

### Ancient and medieval origins

[edit]

See also: Sparta § Birth and death

Giuseppe Diotti's The selection of the infant Spartans (1840)

According to Plutarch, in Sparta every proper citizen's child was inspected by the council of elders, the Gerousia, which determined whether or not the child was fit to live.[28] If the child was deemed unfit, the child was thrown into a chasm.[29][30] Plutarch is the sole historical source for the Spartan practice of systemic infanticide motivated by eugenics.[31] While infanticide was practiced by Greeks, no contemporary sources support Plutarch's claims of mass infanticide motivated by eugenics.[32] In 2007 the suggestion that infants were dumped near Mount Taygete was called into question due to a lack of physical evidence. Anthropologist Theodoros Pitsios' research found only bodies from adolescents up to the age of approximately 35.[33][34]

Plato's political philosophy included the belief that human reproduction should be cautiously monitored and controlled by the state through selective breeding.[35][36]

According to Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120), a Roman of the Imperial Period, the Germanic tribes of his day killed any member of their community they deemed cowardly, unwarlike or "stained with abominable vices", usually by drowning them in swamps.[37][38] Modern historians see Tacitus' ethnographic writing as unreliable in such details.[39][40]

### Academic origins

[edit]

See also: Galton Laboratory and Eugenics Record Office

Francis Galton (1822–1911) was a British polymath who coined the term "eugenics".

The term eugenics and its modern field of study were first formulated by Francis Galton in 1883,[41][42][43][b] directly drawing on the recent work delineating natural selection by his half-cousin Charles Darwin.[45][46][47][c] He published his observations and conclusions chiefly in his influential book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. Galton himself defined it as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".[49] The first to systematically apply Darwinism theory to human relations, Galton believed that various desirable human qualities were also hereditary ones, although Darwin strongly disagreed with this elaboration of his theory.[50]

Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities and received funding from various sources.[51] Organizations were formed to win public support for and to sway opinion towards responsible eugenic values in parenthood, including the British Eugenics Education Society of 1907 and the American Eugenics Society of 1921. Both sought support from leading clergymen and modified their message to meet religious ideals.[52] In 1909, the Anglican clergymen William Inge and James Peile both wrote for the Eugenics Education Society. Inge was an invited speaker at the 1921 International Eugenics Conference, which was also endorsed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Patrick Joseph Hayes.[52]

Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for eugenicists, with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York City. Eugenic policies in the United States were first implemented by state-level legislators in the early 1900s.[53] Eugenic policies also took root in France, Germany, and Great Britain.[54] Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, the eugenic policy of sterilizing certain mental patients was implemented in other countries including Belgium,[55] Brazil,[56] Canada,[57] Japan and Sweden.

Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy" framed eugenics as a social philosophy—a philosophy with implications for social order.[58] That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits ("positive eugenics") or reduced rates of sexual reproduction or sterilization of people with less-desired or undesired traits ("negative eugenics").[citation needed]

In addition to being practiced in a number of countries, eugenics was internationally organized through the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations.[59] Its scientific aspects were carried on through research bodies such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics,[60] the Cold Spring Harbor Carnegie Institution for Experimental Evolution,[61] and the Eugenics Record Office.[62] Politically, the movement advocated measures such as sterilization laws.[63] In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness.[64] Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure "Nordic race" or "Aryan" genetic pool and the eventual elimination of "unfit" races.[65][66]

Many leading British politicians subscribed to the theories of eugenics. Winston Churchill supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organization. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty.[48][67][68]

As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted[69] various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions, segregation (both racial segregation and sequestering the mentally ill), compulsory sterilization, forced abortions or forced pregnancies, ultimately culminating in genocide. By 2014, gene selection (rather than "people selection") was made possible through advances in genome editing,[70] leading to what is sometimes called new eugenics, also known as "neo-eugenics", "consumer eugenics", or "liberal eugenics"; which focuses on individual freedom and allegedly pulls away from racism, sexism or a focus on intelligence.[71]

#### Early opposition

[edit]

Early critics of the philosophy of eugenics included the American sociologist Lester Frank Ward,[72] the English writer G. K. Chesterton, and Scottish tuberculosis pioneer and author Halliday Sutherland.[d] Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics", Chesterton's 1917 book Eugenics and Other Evils,[74] and Franz Boas' 1916 article "Eugenics" (published in The Scientific Monthly)[75] were all harshly critical of the rapidly growing movement.

Several biologists were also antagonistic to the eugenics movement, including Lancelot Hogben.[76] Other biologists who were themselves eugenicists, such as J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher, however, also expressed skepticism in the belief that sterilization of "defectives" (i.e. a purely negative eugenics) would lead to the disappearance of undesirable genetic traits.[77]

Among institutions, the Catholic Church opposes sterilization for eugenic purposes.[78] Attempts by the Eugenics Education Society to persuade the British government to legalize voluntary sterilization were opposed by Catholics and by the Labour Party.[79] The American Eugenics Society initially gained some Catholic supporters, but Catholic support declined following the 1930 papal encyclical Casti connubii.[52] In this, Pope Pius XI explicitly condemned sterilization laws: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason."[80]

The eugenicists' political successes in Germany and Scandinavia were not at all matched in such countries as Poland and Czechoslovakia, even though measures had been proposed there, largely because of the Catholic church's moderating influence.[81]

### Eugenic feminism

[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Eugenic feminism.[edit]

Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904

Eugenic feminism was a current of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics.[82] Originally coined by the Lebanese-British physician and vocal eugenicist Caleb Saleeby,[83][84][85] the term has since been applied to summarize views held by prominent feminists of Great Britain and the United States. Some early suffragettes in Canada, especially a group known as The Famous Five, also pushed for various eugenic policies.

Eugenic feminists argued that if women were provided with more rights and equality, the deteriorating characteristics of a given race could be averted.

### North American eugenics

[edit]

American eugenicists generally pursued more public-facing work and accordingly became widely known for their racism in particular. Along these lines, they were often harshly criticized by their British counterparts.[86]

This section is an excerpt from Eugenics in the United States.[edit]

While its American practice was ostensibly about improving genetic quality, it has been argued that eugenics was more about preserving the position of the dominant groups in the population. Scholarly research has determined that people who found themselves targets of the eugenics movement were those who were seen as unfit for society—the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, and specific communities of color—and a disproportionate number of those who fell victim to eugenicists' sterilization initiatives were women who were identified as African American, Asian American, or Native American.[87][88] As a result, the United States' eugenics movement is now generally associated with racist and nativist elements, as the movement was to some extent a reaction to demographic and population changes, as well as concerns over the economy and social well-being, rather than scientific genetics.[89][88]

#### Eugenics in Mexico

[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Eugenics in Mexico.[edit]

Following the Mexican Revolution, the eugenics movement gained prominence in Mexico. Seeking to change the genetic make-up of the country's population, proponents of eugenics in Mexico focused primarily on rebuilding the population, creating healthy citizens, and ameliorating the effects of perceived social ills such as alcoholism, prostitution, and venereal diseases. Mexican eugenics, at its height in the 1930s, influenced the state's health, education, and welfare policies.[90]

Mexican elites adopted eugenic thinking and raised it under the banner of “the Great Mexican family” (Spanish: la gran familia mexicana).[91]

Unlike in other countries, the eugenics movements in Latin America were largely founded on the idea of neo-Lamarckian eugenics.[92] Neo-Lamarckian eugenics stated that the outside effects experienced by an organism, throughout its lifetime, changed its genetics, permanently, allowing the organism to pass acquired traits onto its offspring.[93] In the Neo-Lamarckian genetic framework, activities, such as prostitution and alcoholism, could result in the degeneration of future generations, amplifying fears about the effects of certain social ills. However, the supposed genetic malleability also offered hope, to certain Latin American eugenicists, as social reform would have the ability to transform the population, more permanently.[92]

### Nazism and the decline of eugenics

[edit]

See also: Nazi eugenics, Racial hygiene, Life unworthy of life, and Scientific racism

Schloss Hartheim, a former center for Nazi Germany's Aktion T4 campaign

The reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin used eugenics as a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein Kampf in 1925 and emulated eugenic legislation for the sterilization of "defectives" that had been pioneered in the United States once he took power.[94] Some common early 20th century eugenics methods involved identifying and classifying individuals and their families. This included racial groups (such as the Roma and Jews in Nazi Germany), the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, and homosexuals as "degenerate" or "unfit". This led to segregation, institutionalization, sterilization, and mass murder.[95] The Nazi policy of identifying German citizens deemed unfit and then systematically killing them with poison gas, referred to as the Aktion T4 campaign, paved the way for the Holocaust.[96][97][98]

> "All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and human cloning shall be prohibited."

Hungarian Constitution[99]

By the end of World War II, many eugenics laws were abandoned, having become associated with Nazi Germany.[100] H. G. Wells, who had called for "the sterilization of failures" in 1904,[101] stated in his 1940 book The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting For? that among the human rights, which he believed should be available to all people, was "a prohibition on mutilation, sterilization, torture, and any bodily punishment".[102] After World War II, the practice of "imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a national, ethnical, racial or religious] group" fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.[103] The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons".[104]

### In Singapore

[edit]

Main article: Population control in Singapore § Demographic transition and the Graduate Mothers Scheme

Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, actively promoted eugenics as late as 1983.[105] In 1984, Singapore began providing financial incentives to highly educated women to encourage them to have more children. For this purpose was introduced the "Graduate Mother Scheme" that incentivized graduate women to get married as much as the rest of their populace.[106] The incentives were extremely unpopular and regarded as eugenic, and were seen as discriminatory towards Singapore's non-Chinese ethnic population. In 1985, the incentives were partly abandoned as ineffective, while the government matchmaking agency, the Social Development Network, remains active.[107][108][109]

## Modern eugenics

[edit]

See also: New eugenics

Liberal eugenics, also called new eugenics, aims to make genetic interventions morally acceptable by rejecting coercive state programs and relying on parental choice.[110][14] Bioethicist Nicholas Agar, who coined the term, argues that the state should intervene only to forbid interventions that excessively limit a child’s ability to shape their own future.[111] Unlike "authoritarian" or "old" eugenics, liberal eugenics draws on modern scientific knowledge of genomics to enable informed choices aimed at improving well-being.[14] Julien Savulescu further argues that some eugenic practices, like prenatal screening for Down syndrome, are already widely practiced, without being labeled "eugenics", as they are seen as enhancing freedom rather than restricting it.[112]

UC Berkeley sociologist Troy Duster argued that modern genetics is a "back door to eugenics".[113] This view was shared by then-White House Assistant Director for Forensic Sciences, Tania Simoncelli, who stated in a 2003 publication by the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College that advances in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are moving society to a "new era of eugenics", and that, unlike the Nazi eugenics, modern eugenics is consumer driven and market based, "where children are increasingly regarded as made-to-order consumer products".[114] The United Nations' International Bioethics Committee also noted that while human genetic engineering should not be confused with the 20th century eugenics movements, it nonetheless challenges the idea of human equality and opens up new forms of discrimination and stigmatization for those who do not want or cannot afford the technology.[115]

In 2025, geneticist Peter Visscher published a paper in Nature, arguing genome editing of human embryos and germ cells may become feasible in the 21st century, and raising ethical considerations in the context of previous eugenics movements.[116][117] A response argued that human embryo genetic editing is "unsafe and unproven".[118] Nature also published an editorial, stating: "The fear that polygenic gene editing could be used for eugenics looms large among them, and is, in part, why no country currently allows genome editing in a human embryo, even for single variants".[117]

## Contested scientific status

[edit]

In the decades after World War II, the term "eugenics" had taken on a negative connotation and as a result, the use of it became increasingly unpopular within the scientific community. Many organizations and journals that had their origins in the eugenics movement began to distance themselves from the philosophy which spawned them, as when Eugenics Quarterly was renamed Social Biology in 1969.

One general concern is that the reduced genetic diversity that may be a feature of long-term, species-wide eugenics plans[119] could eventually result in inbreeding depression,[119] increased spread of infectious disease,[120][121][better source needed] and decreased resilience to changes in the environment.[122][better source needed]

### Arguments for scientific validity

[edit]

See also: Selective breeding, De novo domestication, List of domesticated animals, List of domesticated plants, and Self-domestication

In his original lecture "Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eugenics", Karl Pearson claimed that everything concerning eugenics fell into the field of medicine.[123] Anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička said in 1918 that "[t]he growing science of eugenics will essentially become applied anthropology."[124] The economist John Maynard Keynes was a lifelong proponent of eugenics and described it as a branch of sociology.[125][126]

In a 2006 newspaper article, Richard Dawkins said that discussion regarding eugenics was inhibited by the shadow of Nazi misuse, to the extent that some scientists would not admit that breeding humans for certain abilities is at all possible. He believes that it is not physically different from breeding domestic animals for traits such as speed or herding skill. Dawkins felt that enough time had elapsed to at least ask just what the ethical differences were between breeding for ability versus training athletes or forcing children to take music lessons, though he could think of persuasive reasons to draw the distinction.[127]

### Objections to scientific validity

[edit]

Amanda Caleb, Professor of Medical Humanities at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, says "Eugenic laws and policies are now understood as part of a specious devotion to a pseudoscience that actively dehumanizes to support political agendas and not true science or medicine."[128]

The first major challenge to conventional eugenics based on genetic inheritance was made in 1915 by Thomas Hunt Morgan. He demonstrated the event of genetic mutation occurring outside of inheritance involving the discovery of the hatching of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) with white eyes from a family with red eyes,[48]: 336–337 demonstrating that major genetic changes occurred outside of inheritance.[48]: 336–337 [clarification needed] Morgan criticized the view that traits such as intelligence or criminality were hereditary, because these traits were subjective.[129][e]

Pleiotropy occurs when one gene influences multiple, seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits, an example being phenylketonuria, which is a human disease that affects multiple systems but is caused by one gene defect.[132] Andrzej Pękalski, from the University of Wroclaw, argues that eugenics can cause harmful loss of genetic diversity if a eugenics program selects a pleiotropic gene that could possibly be associated with a positive trait. Pękalski uses the example of a coercive government eugenics program that prohibits people with myopia from breeding but has the unintended consequence of also selecting against high intelligence since the two were associated.[133]

While the science of genetics has increasingly provided means by which certain characteristics and conditions can be identified and understood, given the complexity of human genetics, culture, and psychology, at this point there is no agreed objective means of determining which traits might be ultimately desirable or undesirable. Some conditions such as sickle-cell disease and cystic fibrosis respectively confer immunity to malaria and resistance to cholera when a single copy of the recessive allele is contained within the genotype of the individual, so eliminating these genes is undesirable in places where such diseases are common.[122]

Edwin Black, journalist, historian, and author of War Against the Weak, argues that eugenics is often deemed a pseudoscience because what is defined as a genetic improvement of a desired trait is a cultural choice rather than a matter that can be determined through objective scientific inquiry.[2] This aspect of eugenics is often considered to be tainted with scientific racism and pseudoscience.[2][134]

Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference, 1921. The bottom text reads: "Like A Tree, Eugenics Draws Its Materials From Many Sources And Organizes Them Into An Harmonious Entity" (such sources, i.e. roots, purportedly including e.g. genetics, physiology, mental testing, anthropology, statistics, medicine, politics and sociology).[135]

## Contested ethical status

[edit]

### Contemporary ethical opposition

[edit]

See also: Larry Arnhart, Leon Kass, and Preimplantation genetic diagnosis § Religious objections

In a book directly addressed at socialist eugenicist J.B.S. Haldane and his once-influential Daedalus, Betrand Russell had one serious objection of his own: eugenic policies might simply end up being used to reproduce existing power relations "rather than to make men happy."[136]

Environmental ethicist Bill McKibben argued against germinal choice technology and other advanced biotechnological strategies for human enhancement. He writes that it would be morally wrong for humans to tamper with fundamental aspects of themselves (or their children) in an attempt to overcome universal human limitations, such as vulnerability to aging, maximum life span and biological constraints on physical and cognitive ability. Attempts to "improve" themselves through such manipulation would remove limitations that provide a necessary context for the experience of meaningful human choice. He claims that human lives would no longer seem meaningful in a world where such limitations could be overcome with technology. Even the goal of using germinal choice technology for clearly therapeutic purposes should be relinquished, he argues, since it would inevitably produce temptations to tamper with such things as cognitive capacities. He argues that it is possible for societies to benefit from renouncing particular technologies, using Ming China, Tokugawa Japan and the contemporary Amish as examples.[137]

### Contemporary ethical advocacy

[edit]

See also: Peter Sloterdijk § Reprogenetics dispute

Bioethicist Stephen Wilkinson has said that some aspects of modern genetics can be classified as eugenics, but that this classification does not inherently make modern genetics immoral.[138]

Historian Nathaniel C. Comfort has claimed that the change from state-led reproductive-genetic decision-making to individual choice has moderated the worst abuses of eugenics by transferring the decision-making process from the state to patients and their families.[139][140]

In their book published in 2000, From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, bioethicists Allen Buchanan, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler argued that liberal societies have an obligation to encourage as wide an adoption of eugenic enhancement technologies as possible (so long as such policies do not infringe on individuals' reproductive rights or exert undue pressures on prospective parents to use these technologies) in order to maximize public health and minimize the inequalities that may result from both natural genetic endowments and unequal access to genetic enhancements.[17]

## In science fiction

[edit]

See also: Speculative evolution, Evolution in fiction, and Genetics in fiction

In the movie, "Gattaca" also refers to the futuristic building complex that hosts the astronauts for an ongoing space colonization program.

The novel Brave New World by the English author Aldous Huxley (1931), is a dystopian social science fiction novel which is set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy.[citation needed]

Various works by the author Robert A. Heinlein mention the Howard Foundation, a group which attempts to improve human longevity through selective breeding.[citation needed]

Among Frank Herbert's other works, the Dune series, starting with the eponymous 1965 novel, describes selective breeding by a powerful sisterhood, the Bene Gesserit, to produce a supernormal male being, the Kwisatz Haderach.[141]

The Star Trek franchise features a race of genetically engineered humans which is known as "Augments", the most notable of them being Khan Noonien Singh. These "supermen" were the cause of the Eugenics Wars, a dark period in Earth's fictional history, before they were deposed and exiled.[142][f] Spin-offs like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds present the Eugenics Wars as the main reason why genetic enhancement is illegal in the United Federation of Planets.[145][146]

The film Gattaca (1997) provides a fictional example of a dystopian society that uses eugenics to decide what people are capable of and their place in the world. The title alludes to the letters G, A, T and C, the four nucleobases of DNA, and depicts the possible consequences of genetic discrimination in the present societal framework. Relegated to the role of a cleaner owing to his genetically projected death at age 32 due to a heart condition (being told: "The only way you'll see the inside of a spaceship is if you were cleaning it"), the protagonist observes enhanced astronauts as they are demonstrating their superhuman athleticism. Although it was not a box office success, it was critically acclaimed and influenced the debate over human genetic engineering in the public consciousness.[147][148][g] As to its accuracy, its production company, Sony Pictures, consulted with a gene therapy researcher and prominent critic of eugenics known to have stated that "[w]e should not step over the line that delineates treatment from enhancement",[151] W. French Anderson, to ensure that the portrayal of science was realistic. Disputing their success in this mission, Philim Yam of Scientific American called the film "science bashing" and Nature's Kevin Davies called it a "surprisingly pedestrian affair", while molecular biologist Lee Silver described its extreme determinism as "a straw man".[152][153]

In his 2018 book Blueprint, the behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin writes that while Gattaca warned of the dangers of genetic information being used by a totalitarian state, genetic testing could also favor better meritocracy in democratic societies which already administer a variety of standardized tests to select people for education and employment. He suggests that polygenic scores might supplement testing in a manner that is essentially free of biases.[154]

## See also

[edit]

* Ableism
* Bioconservatism
* Culling
* Dor Yeshorim
* Dysgenics
* Eugenic feminism
* Genetic engineering
* Genetic enhancement
* Hereditarianism
* Heritability of IQ
* Mendelian traits in humans
* Simple Mendelian genetics in humans
* Moral enhancement
* Project Prevention
* Social Darwinism
* Transhumanism
* Wrongful life
* Eugenics in France

## References

[edit]

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* Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
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122. ^ a b Withrock, Isabelle (2015). "Genetic diseases conferring resistance to infectious diseases". Genes & Diseases. 2 (3): 247–254\. doi:10.1016/j.gendis.2015.02.008. PMC 6150079. PMID 30258868.
123. ^ Salgirli, S. G. (July 2011). "Eugenics for the doctors: Medicine and social control in 1930s Turkey". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 66 (3): 281–312\. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrq040. PMID 20562206. S2CID 205167694.
124. ^ Hrdlička, Aleš (1918). "A Physical Anthropology, Its Scope and Aims." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Volume 1 (PDF), p. 21
125. ^ Freedland, Jonathan (17 February 2012). "Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet | Jonathan Freedland". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
126. ^ Keynes, John Maynard (1946). "The Galton lecture, 1946: Presentation of the society's gold medal". Eugenics Review. 38 (1): 39–40\. PMC 2986310. PMID 21260495. "On February I4th, I946, before a large gathering of Fellows, Members and guests at Manson house, London, Lord Keynes, On behalf of the Eugenics Society, presented the first Galton Medal... Opening the proceedings, Lord Keynes said: It is a satisfaction to take part in the presentation of the first Galton Gold Medal, both in piety to the memory of the great Galton and in recognition of a worthy and appropriate recipient of a medal established in his name."
127. ^ Dawkins, Richard (20 November 2006). "From the Afterword". The Herald. Glasgow. Archived from the original on 10 May 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
128. ^ Caleb, Amanda (27 January 2023). "Eugenics and (Pseudo-) Science". The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, and Resilience. Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
129. ^ "Social Origins of Eugenics". Eugenicsarchive.org. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
130. ^ Carlson, Elof Axel (2002). "Scientific Origins of Eugenics". Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement. Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
131. ^ Leonard, Thomas C. (Tim) (Fall 2005). "Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era" (PDF). Journal of Economic Perspectives. 19 (4): 207–224\. doi:10.1257/089533005775196642. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
132. ^ Stearns, F. W. (2010). "One Hundred Years of Pleiotropy: A Retrospective". Genetics. 186 (3): 767–773\. doi:10.1534/genetics.110.122549. PMC 2975297. PMID 21062962.
133. ^ Jones, A. (2000). "Effect of eugenics on the evolution of populations". European Physical Journal B. 17 (2): 329–332\. Bibcode:2000EPJB...17..329P. doi:10.1007/s100510070148. S2CID 122344067.
134. ^ Worrall, Simon (24 July 2016). "The Gene: Science's Most Dangerous Idea". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
135. ^ Currell, Susan; Cogdell, Christina (2006). Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and American Mass Culture in The 1930s. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. p. 203\. ISBN 9780821416914.
136. ^ Russell, Bertrand (1924). Icarus, or, The future of science (PDF). New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. p. 5.
137. ^ McKibben, Bill (2003). Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. Times Books. ISBN 9780805070965. OCLC 237794777.
138. ^ Wilkinson, Stephen; Garrard, Eve (2013). Eugenics and the Ethics of Selective Reproduction (PDF). Keele University. ISBN 9780957616004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
139. ^ Comfort, Nathaniel (12 November 2012). "The Eugenics Impulse". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
140. ^ Comfort, Nathaniel (25 September 2012). The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300169911.
141. ^ Koboldt, Daniel (29 August 2017). "The Science of Sci-Fi: How Science Fiction Predicted the Future of Genetics". Outer Places. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
142. ^ Edwards, Richard (27 June 2023). "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Augments, Illyrians and the Eugenics Wars". Space.com. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
143. ^ Darnovsky, Marcy (2001). "Health and human rights leaders call for an international ban on species-altering procedures". Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2006.
144. ^ Annas, George; Andrews, Lori; Isasi, Rosario (2002). "Protecting the endangered human: Toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations". American Journal of Law & Medicine. 28 (2–3): 151–78\. doi:10.1017/S009885880001162X. PMID 12197461. S2CID 233430956. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2021.2–3&rft.pages=151-78&rft.date=2002&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:233430956#id-name=S2CID&rft_id=info:pmid/12197461&rft_id=info:doi/10.1017/S009885880001162X&rft.aulast=Annas&rft.aufirst=George&rft.au=Andrews,+Lori&rft.au=Isasi,+Rosario&rft_id=https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2233&context;=faculty_scholarship&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Eugenics" class="Z3988">
145. ^ Orquiola, John (26 July 2020). "Star Trek: How TOS' Khan Helped Create DS9's Dr. Bashir". ScreenRant. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
146. ^ Stowe, Dusty (23 April 2023). "Strange New Worlds' Illyrians Return: Revisiting Star Trek's Darkest Hidden History". ScreenRant. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
147. ^ Jabr, Ferris (2013). "Are We Too Close to Making Gattaca a Reality?". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
148. ^ Pope, Marcia; McRoberts, Richard (2003). Cambridge Wizard Student Guide Gattaca. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521536154.
149. ^ Kirby, D.A. (2000). "The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA". Science Fiction Studies. 27: 193–215\. doi:10.1525/sfs.27.2.0193. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
150. ^ Silver, Lee M. (1997). "Genetics Goes to Hollywood". Nature Genetics. 17 (3): 260–261\. doi:10.1038/ng1197-260. S2CID 29335234.
151. ^ Anderson, W. French (1990). "Genetics and Human Malleability." The Hastings Center Report, 20(1), 21–24. doi:10.2307/3562969 p.24
152. ^ Zimmer, Carl (10 November 2008). "Now: The Rest of the Genome". The New York Times.
153. ^ Kirby, David A. (July 2000). "The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in "GATTACA"". Science Fiction Studies. 27 (2): 193–215\. doi:10.1525/sfs.27.2.0193. JSTOR 4240876.
154. ^ Plomin, Robert (13 November 2018). Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. MIT Press. pp. 180–181\. ISBN 9780262039161. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2020.

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ (/juːˈdʒɛnɪks/ yoo-JEN-iks; from Ancient Greek εύ̃ (eû) 'good, well' and -γενής (genḗs) 'born, come into being, growing/grown')[1]
2. ^ He concretely intended it to replace the word "stirpiculture", which he had used previously but which had come to be mocked due to its perceived sexual overtones.[44]
3. ^ Though the origins of the concept also had to do with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance and the theories of August Weismann.[48]: 335–336
4. ^ He had identified eugenicists as a major obstacle to the eradication and cure of tuberculosis in his 1917 address "Consumption: Its Cause and Cure",[73]
5. ^ Despite Morgan's public rejection of eugenics, much of his genetic research was adopted by proponents of eugenics.[130][131]
6. ^ Similarly, the author Edwin Black has described potential "eugenics wars" as the worst-case outcome of eugenics.[page needed] In his view, this scenario would mean the return of coercive state-sponsored genetic discrimination and human rights violations such as the compulsory sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, specifically, the segregation and genocide of races which are considered inferior.[95]

Law professors George Annas and Lori Andrews have similarly argued that the use of these technologies could lead to such human-posthuman caste warfare.[143][144]

7. ^ It has been cited by many bioethicists and laypeople in support of their hesitancy about, or opposition to, eugenics and the genetic determinist ideology that may frame it.[149]

Accordingly, Lee M. Silver stated that "Gattaca is a film that all geneticists should see if for no other reason than to understand the perception of our trade held by so many of the public-at-large".[150]

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eugenics.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Eugenics.

Wikisource has original works on the topic: Eugenics

* H-Eugenics, H-Net's network on the history of eugenics from Michigan State University
* Eugenics: Its Origin and Development (1883–Present) by the National Human Genome Research Institute (30 November 2021)
* Eugenics and Scientific Racism Fact Sheet by the National Human Genome Research Institute (3 November 2021)

* v
* t
* e

Breeds and cultivars

* Lists of breeds
* Lists of cultivars

Methods|

* Backcrossing
* Crossbreed
* Inbreeding
* Marker-assisted selection
* Mutation breeding
* Outcrossing
* Preservation breeding
* Selective breeding
* Smart breeding (Marker-assisted selection)
* Hybrid
* Purebred

Animal breeds|

* Cat
* Cattle
* Chicken
* Dog
* breeding
* Donkey
* Duck
* Goat
* Goose
* Guinea pig
* Horse
* breeding
* Pig
* Pigeon
* breeding
* Rabbit
* Sheep
* Turkey
* Water buffalo

* Backyard breeder
* Breed standard
* Breeding back
* Breeding pair
* Breeding program
* Captive breeding
* Designer crossbreed

Plant cultivars|

* Apple
* Japanese
* Banana
* Basil
* Callistemon
* Canna
* Cannabis
* Capsicum
* Cherimoya
* Citrus
* hybrids
* Coffee
* Cucumber
* Gazania
* Grape
* Grevillea
* Hop
* Mango
* Narcissus (daffodils)
* Nemesia
* Nepenthes
* Olives
* Onion
* Pear
* Rice
* Rose
* breeders
* cultivars
* Strawberry
* Sweet potato
* Sweetcorn
* Tomato
* Venus flytrap

Selection methods
and genetics|

* Culling
* Marker-assisted selection
* Natural selection
* balancing
* directional
* disruptive
* negative
* selective sweep
* stabilizing
* Selection methods in plant breeding
* Genotype
* Phenotype
* Dominance
* Codominance
* Epistasis
* Dwarfing
* Heterosis
* Outbreeding depression
* Inbreeding depression
* Recessive trait
* Sex linkage
* F1 hybrid

Other|

* Breed registry
* Breeder
* profession
* animal
* Eugenics
* Germline
* Heirloom plant
* Landrace
* Rare breed
* Tree breeding

* v
* t
* e

Charles Darwin

Life|

* Darwin–Wedgwood family
* Erasmus Darwin
* Josiah Wedgwood
* Education
* Voyage on HMS Beagle
* Inception of theory
* Development of theory
* Publication of theory
* Reactions to On the Origin of Species
* Orchids to Variation
* Descent of Man to Emotions
* Insectivorous Plants to Worms
* Religious views
* Health
* Women
* Portraits of Darwin (caricatures)

Writings|

* Extracts from Letters to Henslow (1835)
* The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
* The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842)
* Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1838–1843)
* Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands (1844)
* Geological Observations on South America (1846)
* "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties" (1858)
* On the Origin of Species (1859)
* Fertilisation of Orchids (1862)
* The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868)
* Natural Selection
* The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871)
* The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
* Insectivorous Plants (1875)
* On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875)
* The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876)
* The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (1877)
* The Power of Movement in Plants (1880)
* The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (1881)
* The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (1887)
* Correspondence
* The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1887
* More Letters of Charles Darwin, 1903
* List of described taxa

Related|

* Eugenics
* Dysgenics
* Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
* The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1930)
* History of evolutionary thought
* Pangenesis
* Darwin Industry
* Commemoration
* things named for Darwin
* Darwinism
* Neural
* Quantum
* Social
* Universal
* Alternatives to
* Eclipse of
* HMS Beagle
* Darwin Medal
* Darwin Awards
* Huxley family
* Linnean Society of London
* Darwin–Wallace Medal

* v
* t
* e

Genetic engineering

Genetically
modified
organisms|

| Crops|

| Maize/corn|

* MON 810
* MON 863
* StarLink
* List of varieties of genetically modified maize/corn

|

Potato|

* Amflora

Rice|

* Golden rice

Soybean|

* Roundup ready soybean
* Vistive Gold

Tomato|

* Flavr Savr

Cotton|

* Bt cotton

Wheat|

* HB4

Other|

* Apple
* Arabidopsis
* Brinjal
* Canola
* Papaya
* Rose
* SmartStax
* Sugar beet
* Tobacco
* Trees
* Mustard

Animals|

| Mammals|

* Mouse
* Knockout mouse
* Oncomouse
* Woolly mouse
* Enviropig
* Herman the Bull
* Knockout rat
* Rabbit
* Ruppy
* Wolves

|

Other animals|

* Insects
* Fish
* GloFish
* Salmon
* Birds
* Frogs

Bacteria
and viruses|

* Ice-minus bacteria
* Hepatitis B vaccine
* Oncolytic virus

Processes|

| Inserting DNA|

* Agrobacteria
* Biolistics
* Electroporation
* Genetic transduction
* Lipofection
* Microinjection
* Somatic cell nuclear transfer
* Transfection

|

Types|

* Recombinant DNA
* Transgenesis
* Cisgenesis

Uses|

| In agriculture|

* Genetically modified food
* Controversies
* Pharming
* Companies
* BASF
* Bayer
* Dow AgroSciences
* DuPont Pioneer
* Monsanto
* Syngenta

|

In humans and
diagnostics|

* Gene therapy
* Genetic enhancement
* Genetic testing

In research|

* Gene knockout
* Gene knockdown
* Gene targeting

Related
articles|

* Transgene
* Detection of genetically modified organisms
* Genetic pollution
* Genetics in fiction
* Human enhancement
* Reverse transfection
* Transhumanism
* Genetic use restriction technology

Regulation|

* Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Geography|

* Europe
* Africa
* Asia
* North America (US)
* South America
* Oceania

Similar fields|

* Eugenics
* Cloning
* Stem cell research
* Synthetic biology

* Biology
* Genetics
* Biotechnology
* Bioethics

* v
* t
* e

Obsolete definitions of race

* Racism
* Scientific racism
* Pseudoscience

Color terminology|

* Black
* Bronze
* Brown
* Olive
* Red
* White

Concepts|

* Australoid
* Capoid
* Caucasoid
* Alpine
* Arabid
* Armenoid
* Aryan
* Atlantid
* Caspian
* Dinaric
* East Baltic
* Ethiopid
* Hamites
* Indid
* Iranid
* Mediterranean
* Nordic
* Semites
* Turanid
* Malay
* Mongoloid
* Proto-Mongoloid
* Sinodonty and Sundadonty
* Negroid
* Negrito

Sociological|

* in India
* Passing
* Racial discrimination
* Racism
* Racial stereotypes
* Colorism
* Master race
* Nazism and race
* Racial hygiene
* Whiteness studies
* Négritude

Writers|

* Louis Agassiz
* John Baker
* Erwin Baur
* John Beddoe
* Robert Bennett Bean
* François Bernier
* Renato Biasutti
* Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
* Franz Boas
* Daniel Garrison Brinton
* Paul Broca
* Alice Mossie Brues
* Halfdan Bryn
* Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
* Charles Caldwell
* Petrus Camper
* Samuel A. Cartwright
* Houston Stewart Chamberlain
* Sonia Mary Cole
* Carleton S. Coon
* Georges Cuvier
* Jan Czekanowski
* Charles Davenport
* Joseph Deniker
* Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt
* Anténor Firmin
* Eugen Fischer
* Francis Galton
* Stanley Marion Garn
* Reginald Ruggles Gates
* George Gliddon
* Arthur de Gobineau
* Madison Grant
* John Grattan
* Hans F. K. Günther
* Ernst Haeckel
* Frederick Ludwig Hoffman
* Earnest Hooton
* Julian Huxley
* Thomas Henry Huxley
* Calvin Ira Kephart
* Robert Knox
* Robert E. Kuttner
* Georges Vacher de Lapouge
* Fritz Lenz
* Carl Linnaeus
* Cesare Lombroso
* Bertil Lundman
* Felix von Luschan
* Dominick McCausland
* John Mitchell
* Ashley Montagu
* Lewis H. Morgan
* Samuel George Morton
* Josiah C. Nott
* Karl Pearson
* Roger Pearson
* Oscar Peschel
* Isaac La Peyrère
* Charles Pickering
* Ludwig Hermann Plate
* Alfred Ploetz
* James Cowles Prichard
* Otto Reche
* Gustaf Retzius
* William Z. Ripley
* Alfred Rosenberg
* Benjamin Rush
* Henric Sanielevici
* Heinrich Schmidt
* Ilse Schwidetzky
* Charles Gabriel Seligman
* Giuseppe Sergi
* Samuel Stanhope Smith
* Herbert Spencer
* Morris Steggerda
* Lothrop Stoddard
* William Graham Sumner
* Thomas Griffith Taylor
* Paul Topinard
* John H. Van Evrie
* Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer
* Alexander Winchell
* Ludwig Woltmann

Publications|

* An Essay upon the Causes of the Different Colours of People in Different Climates (1744)
* The Outline of History of Mankind (1785)
* Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question (1849)
* An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855)
* The Races of Europe (Ripley, 1899)
* The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899)
* Race Life of the Aryan Peoples (1907)
* Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911)
* Castes in India (1916)
* The Passing of the Great Race (1916)
* The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920)
* The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930)
* Annihilation of Caste (1936)
* An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus (1943)
* The Race Question (1950)

Related|

* Ethnogenesis
* Eugenics
* Great chain of being
* History of anthropometry
* Miscegenation
* Monogenism
* Multiracial
* Polygenism
* Pre-Adamite
* Pre-modern conceptions of whiteness

* v
* t
* e

History of biology (timeline)

Fields,
disciplines|

* Agricultural science
* Anatomy
* Biochemistry
* Biotechnology
* Botany
* Ecology
* Evolutionary thought
* Genetics
* Geology
* Immunology
* Medicine
* Model organisms
* Molecular biology
* Molecular evolution
* Paleontology
* Phycology
* Plant systematics
* RNA biology
* Zoology (through 1859)
* Zoology (since 1859)

Theories,
concepts|

* Germ theory of disease
* Central dogma of molecular biology
* Darwinism
* Great chain of being
* Hierarchy of life
* Lamarckism
* One gene–one enzyme hypothesis
* Protocell
* RNA world
* Sequence hypothesis
* Spontaneous generation

Related|

* History of science
* Philosophy of biology
* Teleology
* Ethnobotany
* Eugenics
* Dysgenics
* History of the creation-evolution controversy
* Human Genome Project
* Humboldtian science
* Natural history
* Natural philosophy
* Natural theology
* Relationship between religion and science

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Philosophy of biology

Themes|

* Ethics
* Eugenics
* Dysgenics
* Kin selection
* Naturalism
* Reductionism
* Holism
* Emergence
* Evolutionary taxonomy

Evolution|

* Adaptationism
* Alternatives to Darwinian evolution
* Catastrophism
* Lamarckism
* Orthogenesis
* Mutationism
* Structuralism
* Spandrel
* Theistic
* Vitalism
* Darwinism
* Evolutionary epistemology
* Teleology
* Tree of life

Philosophers of biology|

* John Beatty
* Lindley Darden
* Daniel Dennett
* John Dupré
* Carla Fehr
* Marjorie Grene
* Peter Godfrey-Smith
* James R. Griesemer
* Paul E. Griffiths
* David Hull
* Hans Jonas
* Philip Kitcher
* Tim Lewens
* Helen Longino
* Jane Maienschein
* Roberta Millstein
* Sandra Mitchell
* Susan Oyama
* Alex Rosenberg
* Michael Ruse
* Sahotra Sarkar
* Elliott Sober
* Kim Sterelny
* Alfred I. Tauber
* Francisco Varela
* Gerard Verschuuren
* William C. Wimsatt

Biologists|

* Francisco J. Ayala
* Patrick Bateson
* Charles Darwin
* Richard Dawkins
* Jared Diamond
* Michael Ghiselin
* François Jacob
* Stephen Jay Gould
* Richard Lewontin
* Konrad Lorenz
* Humberto Maturana
* Ernst Mayr
* Jacques Monod
* Denis Noble
* Joan Roughgarden
* Rolf Sattler
* John Maynard Smith
* E. O. Wilson
* Jonas Salk

Related|

* Philosophy of mind
* History of biology

* v
* t
* e

Population

Major topics|

* Demographics of the world
* Demographic transition
* Estimates of historical world population
* Population growth
* Population momentum
* Human population projections
* World population

Population
biology

* Population decline
* Population density
* Physiological density
* Population dynamics
* Population model
* Population pyramid

Population
ecology

* Biocapacity
* Carrying capacity
* I = P × A × T
* Kaya identity
* Malthusian growth model
* Overshoot (population)
* World3 model

Society and
population|

* Eugenics
* Dysgenics
* Human overpopulation
* Malthusian catastrophe
* Human population planning
* Compulsory sterilization
* Dependency ratio
* Family planning
* One-child policy
* Two-child policy
* Overconsumption
* Political demography
* Population ethics
* Antinatalism
* Intergenerational equity
* Mere addition paradox
* Natalism
* Non-identity problem
* Reproductive rights
* Sustainable population
* Zero population growth

Publications|

* Population and Environment
* Population and Development Review

Lists|

* Population and housing censuses by country
* Dependency ratio
* Largest cities
* Number of births
* World population milestones
* 6 billion
* 7
* 8
* Population concern organizations

Events and
organizations

* 7 Billion Actions
* Church of Euthanasia
* International Conference on Population and Development
* Population Action International
* Population Connection
* Population Matters
* United Nations Population Fund
* United Nations world population conferences
* Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
* World Population Conference
* World Population Day
* World Population Foundation

Related topics|

* Bennett's law
* Green Revolution
* Human impact on the environment
* Migration
* Net migration rate
* Sustainability

* Commons
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Pseudoscience

List of topics characterized as pseudoscience

Terminology|

* Cargo cult science
* Charlatan
* Crank
* Fringe theory
* Fringe science
* Pseudoarchaeology
* Pseudohistory
* Pseudomathematics
* Junk science
* Paranormal
* Pathological science
* Quackery
* Snake oil
* Superseded scientific theory
* True-believer syndrome
* Voodoo Science

Topics
characterized as
pseudoscience|

| Medicine|

* Acupuncture
* Aromatherapy
* Adrenal fatigue
* Alternative medicine
* Anthroposophic medicine
* Applied kinesiology
* Ayurveda
* Bates method
* Biorhythms
* Bloodletting
* Body memory
* Chiropractic
* Chromotherapy
* Correactology
* Cryonics
* Crystal healing
* Cupping
* Detoxification
* Colon cleansing
* Doctrine of signatures
* Doktor Koster's Antigaspills
* Ear candling
* Electromagnetic hypersensitivity
* Energy medicine
* Fad diet
* FasciaBlaster
* Germ theory denialism
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* Homeopathy
* Humorism
* Iridology
* Leaky gut syndrome
* LGBTQ chemicals conspiracy theory
* Lunar effect
* Macrobiotic diet
* Magnet therapy
* Miracle Mineral Supplement
* Naturopathy
* Palmistry
* Panchagavya
* Patent medicine
* Phrenology
* Primal therapy
* Radionics
* Reiki
* Traditional medicine
* Traditional Chinese medicine
* Trepanning
* Vertebral subluxation
* Wind turbine syndrome
* Young blood transfusion

|

Social science|

* 2012 phenomenon
* Ancient astronauts
* Arabian Judah theory
* Catastrophism
* Conspiracy theory
* 5G conspiracy
* 9/11 conspiracy theories
* Chemtrail conspiracy theory
* Climate change denial
* COVID-19 misinformation
* Moon landing conspiracy theories
* Opposition to water fluoridation
* Conversion therapy
* Expanding Earth Theory
* Generational theory
* Generationism
* Strauss–Howe generational theory
* Hollow Earth theory
* Indigo children
* Japhetic theory
* Mediumship
* Nazi archaeology
* Nibiru cataclysm
* Parapsychology
* Pseudoarchaeology
* Pseudohistory
* Genocide denial
* Historical negationism
* Holocaust denial
* Tartarian Empire
* Pseudolaw
* Recovered-memory therapy
* Past life regression
* Scientific racism
* Aryan race
* Melanin theory
* Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
* Enneagram of Personality

Physics|

* Anti-gravity
* Cold fusion
* Faster-than-light travel
* Perpetual motion
* Quantum mysticism
* Reactionless drive
* Dean drive
* EMDrive
* Teleportation
* Tractor beam
* Water-fueled car

Other|

* Alchemy
* Aquatic ape hypothesis
* Astrology
* Biodynamic agriculture
* Biological transmutation
* Creation science
* Cryptozoology
* Dianetics
* Auditing
* Dowsing
* Electronic voice phenomenon
* Eugenics
* Facilitated communication
* Feng shui
* Flat Earth theory
* Modern flat Earth beliefs
* Graphology
* Intelligent design
* Laundry ball
* Law of attraction
* Levitation
* Lysenkoism
* Numerology
* Orgone
* Polygraph
* Pseudoscientific metrology
* Rapid prompting method
* Statement analysis
* Ufology
* Voice stress analysis
* Water memory

Promoters of
pseudoscience|

* Sucharit Bhakdi
* Del Bigtree
* Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff
* Brigitte Boisselier
* Rhonda Byrne
* Robert Charroux
* Deepak Chopra
* Clonaid
* Vernon Coleman
* Michael Crichton
* Ignatius L. Donnelly
* Gaia, Inc.
* Max Gerson
* Nicholas Gonzalez
* Goop (company)
* Graham Hancock
* David Icke
* William Donald Kelley
* Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
* Corentin Louis Kervran
* The Light (newspaper)
* Mike Lindell
* Jenny McCarthy
* Joseph Mercola
* Judy Mikovits
* Ministry of Ayush
* Theodor Morell
* Hans Alfred Nieper
* Mehmet Oz
* Raël (Claude Vorilhon)
* Robby Starbuck
* Randolph Stone
* Paul Joseph Watson
* Andrew Wakefield

Related topics|

* Bogdanov affair
* Bourgeois pseudoscience
* Demarcation problem
* Scientific method
* Suppressed research in the Soviet Union

Resources|

* Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
* Cults of Unreason
* An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
* Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
* Fortean Times
* James Randi Educational Foundation
* Quackwatch
* Skeptical Inquirer
* The Demon-Haunted World
* The Natural History of Quackery
* The Psychology of the Occult
* The Ragged Edge of Science
* The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience
* The Skeptic's Dictionary

* v
* t
* e

Public health

General|

* Auxology
* Biological hazard
* Chief medical officer
* Cultural competence
* Deviance
* Environmental health
* Eugenics
* History of
* Liberal
* Euthenics
* Genomics
* Globalization and disease
* Harm reduction
* Health economics
* Health literacy
* Health policy
* Health system
* Health care reform
* Housing First
* Human right to water and sanitation
* Management of depression
* Public health law
* National public health institute
* Health politics
* Labor rights
* Maternal health
* Medical anthropology
* Medical sociology
* Mental health (Ministers)
* Occupational safety and health
* Pharmaceutical policy
* Pollution
* Air
* Water
* Soil
* Radiation
* Light
* Prisoners' rights
* Public health intervention
* Public health laboratory
* Right to food
* Right to health
* Right to a healthy environment
* Right to housing
* Right to rest and leisure
* Right to sit
* Security of person
* Sexual and reproductive health
* Social psychology
* Sociology of health and illness
* Unisex changing rooms
* Unisex public toilets
* Workers' right to access the toilet

Preventive healthcare|

* Behavior change
* Theories
* Drug checking
* Family planning
* Harm reduction
* Health promotion
* Human nutrition
* Healthy diet
* Preventive nutrition
* Hygiene
* Food safety
* Hand washing
* Infection control
* Oral hygiene
* Needle and syringe programmes
* Occupational safety and health
* Human factors and ergonomics
* Hygiene
* Controlled Drugs
* Injury prevention
* Medicine
* Nursing
* Patient safety
* Organization
* Pharmacovigilance
* Reagent testing
* Safe sex
* Sanitation
* Emergency
* Fecal–oral transmission
* Open defecation
* Sanitary sewer
* Waterborne diseases
* Worker
* School hygiene
* Smoking cessation
* Supervised injection site
* Vaccination
* Vector control

Population health|

* Biostatistics
* Child mortality
* Community health
* Epidemiology
* Global health
* Health impact assessment
* Health system
* Infant mortality
* Open-source healthcare software
* Multimorbidity
* Public health informatics
* Social determinants of health
* Commercial determinants of health
* Health equity
* Race and health
* Social medicine

Biological and
epidemiological statistics|

* Case–control study
* Randomized controlled trial
* Relative risk
* Statistical hypothesis testing
* Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
* Regression analysis
* ROC curve
* Student's t-test
* Z-test
* Statistical software

Infectious and epidemic
disease prevention|

* Asymptomatic carrier
* Epidemics
* List
* Notifiable diseases
* List
* Public health surveillance
* Disease surveillance
* Quarantine
* Sexually transmitted infection
* Social distancing
* Tropical disease
* Vaccine trial
* WASH

Food hygiene and
safety management|

* Food
* Additive
* Chemistry
* Engineering
* Microbiology
* Processing
* Safety
* Safety scandals
* Good agricultural practice
* Good manufacturing practice
* HACCP
* ISO 22000

Health behavioral
sciences|

* Diffusion of innovations
* Health belief model
* Health communication
* Health psychology
* Positive deviance
* PRECEDE–PROCEED model
* Social cognitive theory
* Social norms approach
* Theory of planned behavior
* Transtheoretical model

Organizations,
education
and history|

| Organizations|

* Caribbean
* Caribbean Public Health Agency
* China
* Center for Disease Control and Prevention
* Europe
* Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
* Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
* Russia
* Rospotrebnadzor
* India
* Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
* Canada
* Health Canada
* Public Health Agency
* U.S.
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
* Health departments in the United States
* Council on Education for Public Health
* Public Health Service
* World Health Organization
* World Toilet Organization
* (Full list)

|

Education|

* Health education
* Higher education
* Bachelor of Science in Public Health
* Doctor of Public Health
* Professional degrees of public health
* Schools of public health

History|

* History of public health in the United Kingdom
* History of public health in the United States
* History of public health in Australia
* Sara Josephine Baker
* Samuel Jay Crumbine
* Carl Rogers Darnall
* Joseph Lister
* Margaret Sanger
* John Snow
* Typhoid Mary
* Radium Girls
* Germ theory of disease
* Social hygiene movement

* Category
* Commons
* WikiProject

* v
* t
* e

Racism

Types of racism|

* Aversive
* Colorism
* Covert
* Cultural
* Cyber
* Environmental
* Formal
* Gendered
* Institutional
* Internalized
* Patent
* Laissez-faire
* Linguistic
* Neocolonial
* Romantic
* Scientific
* Societal
* Substantive
* Symbolic

Manifestations
of racism|

* Anti-miscegenation laws
* Apartheid
* Biological determinism
* Discrimination based on nationality
* Ethnic conflict
* Ethnic hatred
* Ethnic jokes
* Ethnic slurs
* Ethnic stereotype
* Hate crime
* Hate speech
* Hate group
* Hypodescent / Hyperdescent
* Racial capitalism
* Racialization
* Racial hierarchy
* Racial nationalism
* Racial profiling
* Racial segregation

Racism by region|

* Global apartheid
* Africa
* South Africa
* Zimbabwe
* Asia
* China
* Japan
* North Korea
* South Korea
* Thailand
* Vietnam
* Arab world
* Libya
* Saudi Arabia
* Sudan
* Australia
* Europe
* Denmark
* France
* Germany
* Italy
* Poland
* Portugal
* Russia
* Soviet Union
* Spain
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* Middle East
* Iran
* Israel
* Palestine
* Turkey
* North America
* Canada
* United States
* Mexico
* South America
* Argentina
* Brazil
* Chile

Racism by target|

* Arab
* Asians
* Chinese
* Chinese Americans
* Zainichi Chinese
* Japanese
* Japanese Americans
* Japanese Koreans
* Korean
* Zainichi Koreans
* Vietnamese
* Black
* African Americans
* Arab
* Women
* Mexican
* Native Americans
* Jewish
* Anti-racism
* Jewish Americans
* In Jewish communities
* LGBT
* Middle Eastern
* Muslim
* Romani
* Slavic
* Wine industry
* Racial supremacy
* Black supremacy
* White supremacy
* White

Related topics|

* Ableism
* Alt-right
* Anti-racism
* Casteism
* Ethnic plastic surgery
* Go back to where you came from
* Herrenvolk democracy
* Interminority racism in the United States
* Hispanics/Latinos
* Lynching
* Passing
* Perpetual foreigner
* Psychometrics of racism
* Race and sexuality
* Race card
* Racial bias in criminal news in the United States
* Racial misrepresentation
* Racial figleaf
* Racial integration
* Racial quota
* Racism in sport
* in Australia
* Reverse racism
* Sociology of race and ethnic relations
* Xenophobia

* Category
* Commons
* Index

Authority control databases

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Israel

Other|

* Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
* NARA
* Yale LUX

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