Eugenics, which can be described as controlled reproduction to eliminate the genetically unfit and promote the reproduction of the genetically fit (Allen), was a worldwide movement to improve human heredity during the 19th century. The term eugenics was originally coined by Charles Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton in 1883 to mean ‘truly’ or ‘purely’ born and was redefined by Galton’s American disciple Charles B. Davenport as “the science of the improvement of the human race by better breeding” (Allen). The American eugenics movement gained prominence in the progressive era from 1900-1940, but eugenic ideas have remained consistent in society ever since.
Eugenicists, advocates of eugenics, were active in promoting the movement in the scientific, political, and legal arenas of American society. Eugenic scientists developed research programs to find distinct genetic roots for the many problems of personality and society that alarmed their contemporaries: from “feeblemindedness” and “psychopathy” to “delinquency” and “hypersexuality.” The poverty and crime that pervaded society were comprehended as the offspring of hereditary “mental defects” and “racial mongrelization” (Willrich). Supporters of this movement advocated for immigration restriction and compulsory sterilization laws within the United States to weed out the “genetically unfit” and promote the development of a genetically improved populous.
The logical justification behind eugenics was that it was too inconvenient and inefficient for the state to be caring for “genetically unfit” individuals and the offspring of these individuals with unfavorable traits. Therefore, eugenics programs were a form of social control: a way to keep these traits from manifesting in a large portion of the population and from furthering the prominence of recurrent social problems in society.