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Dec
29
A History Of Indiana Eugenics
Filed Under eugenics, health care, Indiana history
Indiana has the not-so-honorable distinction of being the first state to pass a eugenics law in 1907 and which 30 states would eventually put into their statutes. These types of laws were the model for what Germany put into place in 1933.
INdiana Systemic Thinking has a thought-provoking post about the past, present, and future of eugenics in Indiana.
Dr. Eric Schansberg, in a guest editorial in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, gives a history of eugenics in Indiana, and implications for today and the future. When one reads the article, you are struck by how distasteful this was. When he applies this to today’s science and political culture, it is just plain scary.
We observed a dubious centennial this year. In 1907, Indiana became the first state in America to pass a eugenics law.
Eugenics can be defined as the study of the hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled, selective breeding. Because of what we now know about genetics, eugenics turns out to be a pseudo-science loaded with philosophical and ethical baggage.
