Andrew Trostle

HIST 1301-203

7 March 2016

Part 1

1. The purpose of this law is to allow physicians to either fix or sterilize (if there can be
no improvement) undesirable people, such as rapists and the mentally disabled. The
law also states that they can only be sterilized if they are in the care of state
institutions, such as prisons. This action would thus decrease “foul” genes from
spreading and weakening the country.
2. The aim was to control an undesirable population, which is the vary basis of eugenics
and a beneficial solution in the eyes of Social Darwinism (aka survival of the fittest).
3. The preamble assumes that all less favorable behaviors are the results of genes passed
down through heredity, which is a central tenet of Social Darwinism.
4. According to the law, confirmed criminals, idiots, rapists, and imbeciles are eligible for
sterilization. In short, anyone who is considered to have dangerous behavior or
inadequate at performing desired tasks.
5. The lawmakers do not believe that said convicted person is smarter than trained
physicians, and once they have reached a verdict of “unimprovable”, they are viewed
as subhuman.
6. First of all, this law followed the rules of Social Darwinism, which many people at the
time used as a way to define “progress” in the first place. Secondly, it was based on
the standards of white men. While trying to identify who is inferior, there was,
without a doubt, a strong Anglo-Saxon bias, causing many foreigners, especially
women, to be disproportionately targeted. To the white male progressives leading the
eugenics movement, this was “progress” and “improved” their country greatly. Last of
all, it was an attempt at a solution to a widespread problem. Much of Progressive
reforms, such as prohibition, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the regulation of
natural resources, revolved around politicians answering the problems many faced.
So, this was an attempt to remove these problems from the gene pool and off the
map entirely.

Part 2

7. Germany was embarrassed at its failure to be a successful empire, and many Germans
quickly searched for ways to improve their country, and this perversion of Darwin’s
theory of evolution seemed to fit the bill. It was easy to implement to because the
“inferior” had few ways to fight back against this oncoming threat. Eugenics was
naturally the next stage of imperialism.
8. People of different races and ethnicities, as well as any people who just did not fit the
favored and established archetype of the alpha human, such as political dissidents or
people with social anxiety.
9. Eugenics embraced the idea of removing all that is flawed, and lots of xenophobic
tension, which had culminated for centuries, painted the Jewish people as the most
inferior and the practice of eugenics was thus applied to them.

Part 3

10. Forced sterilization should always be viewed as a violation of basic human rights.
Firstly, the government has no right to take away bodily autonomy. People should be
able to do with their reproductive systems what they want because their body belongs
to them. Secondly, there is now a large amount of scientific data refuting the
argument of Social Darwinism that implies that imperfect qualities such as crime are
passed down through genes. Crime, rape, and even some mental disorders are learned
behaviors. However, some mental disorders and many physical disorders are
genetically passed down. The point still remains, however, that everyone has a right to
their own life.
11. North Carolina lawmakers, in 1933, authorized a Board of Eugenics to be created,
which sterilized over 7000 people during its operation from 1933 to 1977. However,
the laws justifying sterilization without consent in North Carolina weren’t revoked
until 2003, meaning some sterilizations may have still occurred very recently. A large
amount of people who were seen as “inferior” were affected and it wasn’t until three
years ago in 2013 when these victims were finally compensated for the atrocities done
to them.
12. While eugenics had lots of support during the Progressive Era, after long there were
few signs of success and the fear of becoming like Germany, who began killing
thousands, dissuaded Americans from their previous love of radical Social Darwinism,
although a faint version of it still persists in American culture to this day. Because the
Progressive government was very focused on grassroots policy and democracy, the
immediate call to end this obscene practice was heard immediately and stopped;
something impossible under the dictatorship of Nazi Germany.
13. Our cybernetic, technologically advanced society is rapidly approaching a new fate of
transhumanism, a utopia in which every aspect of the human condition can be
analyzed and fixed with a small computer chip. Now more than ever are we able to
analyze bodies and genomes, which brings up the question of eugenics becoming a
movement once again. I do not believe that will happen, however. Nowadays people
are more accepting of differences and will even embrace them as identities to
describe their personality. It wasn’t that long ago when homosexuality was seen as a
disease, but now it is radically accepted and there is little widespread dislike of it.
However, in the case of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and autism, our
society is radically trying to erase these people. Women consider aborting fetuses with
autism and people with ADHD are constantly told to immediately get medication for
the sake of others. In medieval times, patients were merely told that they thought
differently from everyone else and actively obliged to embrace it. However, ableist
sentiment has hardly decreased in a world where everyone must produce more than
their neighbor.