EUGENICS

DEFINITION

Eugenics is "the set of methods and practices aimed at selecting the genetic heritage of
future generations of a population according to a predefined selection framework". It can
be the result of a state policy but also of individual decisions taken by future parents, in a
society where the search for the "perfect child", or at least free of many serious diseases

ORIGINS

Charles Darwin's cousin, derived the term “eugenics” from the Greek word eugenes, meaning “good
in birth” or “good in stock.”

the concept of eugenics has been made since the second world war. The
eugenics program became assoociated with nazy germany and the
holocaust. In fact, it helped the nazi exterminations When Ernst Rüdin used
eugenics as a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Adolf
Hitler had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein Kampf in 1925 .

Positive eugenics is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the

genetically advantaged; for example, the reproduction of the intelligent,
the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial
and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization,
egg transplants, and cloning.