eugenics

Eugenics is the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations, typically in reference to humans. The term eugenics was coined in the 1880s. It failed as a science in the first half of the 20th century, particularly after Nazi Germany used eugenics to support the extermination of those it considered “socially inferior.”

Eugenics was supported by many scientific authorities and political leaders by the time of World War I. However, it ultimately failed as a science in the 1930s and ’40s, when the assumptions of eugenicists became heavily criticized and eugenics was used by Nazi Germany to justify the killing of Jews and other non-Aryan populations.

The American eugenics movement gave rise to laws that mandated the sterilization of—by some estimates—as many as 60,000 disabled people in more than 30 states. The first of these laws passed in Indiana in 1907. Some states sterilized disabled or otherwise marginalized individuals until the 1970s, but most hospitals involved haven’t acknowledged their responsibility.