What about Eugenics and Planned Parenthood?
by Dr. Georgia Purdom on June 2, 2014

Life is precious—no matter how short or how impaired that life may be.

In 1915 a baby boy was born to Anna Bollinger. The baby had obvious deformities, and medical doctor Harry Haiselden decided the baby was not worth saving.1 The baby was denied treatment and died. The story became national news and the cruelty of eugenic practices became public knowledge.

The year 1915 seems far removed from our modern times, but the concept of eugenics is alive and well. In 2005, two doctors from the Netherlands published “The Groningen Protocol—Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns.”2 This protocol was published to help doctors decide whether or not a newborn should be actively killed based on the newborn’s disease and perceived quality of life.3

In this chapter we will explore historical and modern perspectives of eugenics, how Planned Parenthood has played a role in furthering the cause of eugenics in the past and present, and what the proper biblical perspective on these issues should be.

What Is Eugenics?

The term eugenics was first coined in 1883 by Francis Galton, father of eugenics and cousin of Charles Darwin. The term comes from the Greek roots eu (good) and genics (in birth) to communicate the idea of being well-born.

The ultimate goal of eugenics was to create a superior race of humans.4 Many adherents believed in evolution by natural selection, but that natural selection was moving too slowly in favoring the best and eliminating the worst.5 They also believed that charity in the form of taking care of the poor and sick was prohibiting natural selection from working properly and thus the need to intervene with artificial selection.6

Artificial selection was accomplished through two types of eugenics—positive and negative. Positive eugenics focused on increasing the “fit” through promoting marriages among the well-born and promoting those fit couples to have multiple children. Negative eugenics focused on decreasing the number of the “unfit” through prohibiting birth (birth control and sterilization) and segregation (e.g., institutionalization of the unfit, marriage restriction laws, and immigration restriction).

https://answersingenesis.org/sanctity-of-life/eugenics/what-about-eugenics-and-planned-parenthood/

OLAADEGBU:


What about Eugenics and Planned Parenthood?
by Dr. Georgia Purdom on June 2, 2014

Life is precious—no matter how short or how impaired that life may be.

In 1915 a baby boy was born to Anna Bollinger. The baby had obvious deformities, and medical doctor Harry Haiselden decided the baby was not worth saving.¹ The baby was denied treatment and died. The story became national news and the cruelty of eugenic practices became public knowledge.

The year 1915 seems far removed from our modern times, but the concept of eugenics is alive and well. In 2005, two doctors from the Netherlands published "The Groningen Protocol—Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns."² This protocol was published to help doctors decide whether or not a newborn should be actively killed based on the newborn's disease and perceived quality of life.³

In this chapter we will explore historical and modern perspectives of eugenics, how Planned Parenthood has played a role in furthering the cause of eugenics in the past and present, and what the proper biblical perspective on these issues should be.

What Is Eugenics?

The term eugenics was first coined in 1883 by Francis Galton, father of eugenics and cousin of Charles Darwin. The term comes from the Greek roots eu (good) and genics (in birth) to communicate the idea of being well-born.

The ultimate goal of eugenics was to create a superior race of humans.⁴ Many adherents believed in evolution by natural selection, but that natural selection was moving too slowly in favoring the best and eliminating the worst.⁵ They also believed that charity in the form of taking care of the poor and sick was prohibiting natural selection from working properly and thus the need to intervene with artificial selection.⁶

Artificial selection was accomplished through two types of eugenics—positive and negative. Positive eugenics focused on increasing the "fit" through promoting marriages among the well-born and promoting those fit couples to have multiple children. Negative eugenics focused on decreasing the number of the "unfit" through prohibiting birth (birth control and sterilization) and segregation (e.g., institutionalization of the unfit, marriage restriction laws, and immigration restriction).

https://answersingenesis.org/sanctity-of-life/eugenics/what-about-eugenics-and-planned-parenthood/

Continued.

History of Eugenics

Although many people associate eugenics with the late 1800s and early 1900s, it is an ancient idea that was in practice long before it was called eugenics. The Law of the Twelve Tables (449 B.C.), which served as the foundation of Roman Law, states "Cito necatus insignis ad deformitatem puer esto," which means, "An obviously deformed child must be put to death."⁷ Both Plato and Aristotle supported this practice⁸ and it was not uncommon for infants to be exposed or left outside the home for a period of time to determine if they were fit enough to survive. The Romans wanted only the most fit for their future warriors.

Francis Galton, upon reading his cousin Charles's book Origin of Species, ⁹ decided to apply the mechanisms of natural and artificial selection to man. He stated, "Could not the undesirables be got rid of and the desirables multiplied?"¹⁰ Galton promoted the ideas that human intelligence and other hard-to-measure traits such as behaviours were greatly influenced by heredity (not the environment, which was the popular mindset of the day).¹¹ He advocated for a program of positive eugenics. His book Hereditary Genius (1869) was well liked by Charles¹² and had a great influence on the ideas presented in his book Descent of Man (1871).¹³

In the early 1900s the eugenics movement became well established in the United States. The movement was well-funded by men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Kellogg. Eugenic societies, conferences, research institutions, and journals gave a façade of real science to the study of eugenics. This was further promoted by eugenic departments and courses at the university level.

The American eugenics movement focused heavily on negative eugenics.¹⁴ Ten classes of social misfits were determined upon which programs of negative eugenics were applied.

First, the feebleminded; second, the pauper class; third, the inebriate class or alcoholics; fourth, criminals of all descriptions including petty criminals and those jailed for nonpayment of fines; fifth, epileptics; sixth, the insane; seventh, the constitutionally weak class; eighth, those predisposed to specific diseases; ninth, the deformed; tenth, those with defective sense organs, that is, the deaf, blind, and mute.¹⁵

All of these traits were thought to be inheritable.¹⁶ Ten percent of the American population was thought to fit into these broad, ill-defined categories (sometimes known as the "submerged tenth”).17 Many of those people were forcibly institutionalized in asylums for the "feebleminded and epileptic." Although not stated in the list, those of "races" other than the Caucasian "race" would also, by the mere fact of ethnic background, be placed into one or more of these categories. Unfortunately, the eugenics movement in the United States heavily influenced Hitler and his scientists and, in return, many eugenicists and eugenic publications supported the horrifying practices of Hitler’s Nazi regime. Negative eugenic practices were even sanctioned by the American government.