Eugenics

Intro
The Theory of Eugenics was a widely embraced during the early 20th century. Canada and Germany both have their roots tied to misapplication of Darwinism that emerged from Britain. The term Eugenics first appeared in England and was coined by Francis Galton in 1869. Galton and supporters of eugenics promoted Social Darwinism, which applied the concept of biological evolution to societies. This embraces the notion that human societies can evolve into “superior” forms. These Governments targeted marginalized groups and applied the principles of racial hygiene using forced sterilization, and genocide. Even though Canada and Germany used different over arching strategies, but their main objective was to determine who is fit to be apart of the nation.

Similarities During the 1930’s eugenics benign form promoted healthy living and “social purity”. However in its tyrannical form, the program-sought ways to ensure “fit” members of society that portrayed undesirable elements were bred out of the population. In most countries where eugenics beliefs were enshrined in legislation, efforts were made to limit reproduction among “unfit” groups through public education, institutionalization and forced sterilization. While Nazi Germany, eugenics beliefs woven into nationalism led to the forced sterilization thousands. They created concentration camps for Jewish and the “Lebensborn” program in which young German women with classic Nordic features forced to mate with members of Hitler’s elite SS troops.

Eugenics Movement in Canada and Germany:

The popularity of eugenics at the time led to the development of legislation that authorized involuntary sterilization by both Canadian and German governments. Politicians and social elites tried to accelerate the progress of the nation by harnessing the power of science. However these progressive goals were developed on the foundation of structured inequality including racist and sexist attitudes (Gosney and Popenoe 1929)

In Britain in 1883, Sir Francis Galton coined the term “eugenics” to describe the use of genetic experiments to intervene in the human hereditary process. Herbert Spencer was embraced the work of Galton, whi led him to pioneer the concept of Social Darwinism theory and coined the term “survival of the fittest”. This concept emerged in Britain and embraced the notion that societies struggling for existence would be eliminated through natural selection allowing society to evolve into a more advanced form. The evolution of human histories were put on display at world fairs. These fairs were rooted, in European national exhibition and championed colonialism and Western knowledge. They showed a superior person is born every 48 seconds while an inferior person is born every 7 minutes. This resulted in the government developing an aggressive response to combat the problem because the inferior population was reproducing at a faster rate than the more advanced segment of the population.

Canada and Germany adopting Forced sterilization:

Early adopters of eugenics proposed various solutions and compared the effectiveness of segregation vs. sterilization. By the 1940’s the obsession with negative eugenics (i.e. segregation and sterilization) was starting to share the same ideological space with positive eugenics (i.e. reproductive morality) (kline 2001). WWII caused a significant amount of deaths for both Canada and Germany, and caused and increase in illigetimate births, and femals in the labour force which were seen as threats to the traditional (middle class) family (kline 2001, 156).

The active promotion of both negative and positive eugenics reflected the growing influence of medical and scientific work that was emerging during the early 20th century (rafter, 1994). In response Canada increased the amount of mental institutions, which created more power for social workers and psychiatrists who characterized social problems as medical issues. Their medical knowledge was seen as the answer to these medical problems and believed the solution could be found found using social engineering. This would allow the stronger and more refined personality types to become dominant, while at the same time the gradual decline and extinction of weaker and inferior individuals. This evolutionary social trend was seen to coincide with the outcome of natural laws. Theorists believed a lot could be gained by accerlating the process using the biological concept of Mendelian inheritance. This revolved around selective breeding, which would remove unwanted traits from the gene pool and amplify the inheritance of beneficial traits. However this put a lot of power in the hands of a few individuals incredible authority over the lives of select groups of individuals. This power was obtained when mental and social work was gaining credibility within the scientific community. This influence was spreading across North America due to the perceived prospererity and economic growth. This was a result of the lack of opposition encountered and the ability to operate quietly and efficiently within the boundaries of the mental health system

Forced sterilization in alberta (positive outlook): Eugenics was championed in western Canada by J.S Woodsworth who was a supporter of the “social gospel” who believed their was a decline in the quality of immigrants. He turned his fear into a public crisis by claiming that all sector of society would be contaminated by the immigration of these biological threats. In turn his push for policy recommendations caused a shift towards eugenics and sterilization program (chapman, 1977: 13)

Woodsworth was a key member of Bureau of Social Research that was created by the Alberta government to study social issues such as crime, welfare, race, and immigration problems. Woodsworth influence resulted published articles the problem of mentally defective, which can be traced through the human hereditary process. He thought feebleminded should be prevented from contributing to society and should be segregated and sterilized.

This scientific proof led to the introduction of the Sexual Sterlization Act in 1928 in an attempt to deal with the social problem. The act allowed ““the patient might safely be discharged if the danger of the procreation with its attendant risk of multiplication of evil by transmission of the disability to progeny were eliminated.” (grekul, 363). The patient would be placed before the Eugenics board to determine if the candidate was appropriate for sterilization, and if authorized the patient must consent, unless they were deemed mentally incapable then the next of kin must consent. But this was considered a lengthy process and a method must be developed to ease in which the board could conduct its business. In 1937 a critical component was added to the Sexual Sterilization Act that stated, any individual deemed “mentally defective” no longer required their consent for forceful sterilization. This resulted in the 99% of all sterilization cases being accepted.

After observing how much sterilization had been conducted within only four years, eugenic theorists applauded the efficiency at which the nation was being cleansed. This would halt the feebleminded who were “prone to pass on to posterity their own defects and to bring into the world children double handicapped by both heritage and early environment” (Baragar et al. 1935: 907). However this act was implemented to control marginalized groups, that were condisered weak (i.e. women, children, and indigenous people). In reality a case for an individual was constructed based around social characteristics rather than mental health criteria that was specified within the legislation. People in Alberta continued to be sterilizaed long after the horrors of the nazi eugenics program were exposed.

Herbert Spencer was a British citizen and considered a pioneer of the Social Darwinism theory. He believed that societies struggling for existence would be eliminated through natural selection. This concept emerged from Britain and quickly spread. California, for example was a major center for eugenics activity during the early 20th century, and communicated with German eugenicists during the early period of Nazism. This era was founded on the theories of Arthur Gobineau and Houston Chamberlain. Gobineau believed British and German civilization was contaminated, and the Aryan race contained superior attributes needed for survival. Chamberlain was a British scientist, who wrote the “Foundations of the Nineteenth Century” which provided evidence that the Jewish population posed a threat. Adolf Hitler manipulated these theories to support “Mein Kampf” which formed the cornerstone of the Nazi racial policy. Canada used a similar framework to implement the residential school system to deal with the Indian problem. Both Germans and Canadian governments believed that selective breeding would remove unwanted traits from the gene pool, which would amplify the inheritance of beneficial traits. This mindset led to institutionalized brutality, criminal acts, and murder of a targeted group of people. They forced individuals to undergo involuntary sterilization and targeted the genocide of a specific group with the intent to remove biological threats to create a superior race. Even though Canada and Germany had the best intentions, once you start designing a genetically superior society, the results are always Horrific.