Designer Babies and Fitter Families
So-called “designer babies” have generated fervent discussion in recent weeks, sparked by the latest online dating trend: a sperm and egg bank with the goal to make beautiful people. For some, genetic manipulation is a moral necessity, for others it is an ethical outrage. We are reminded of the eugenics movement.
“Better Babies” contests, originally conceived to promote child welfare and physical development, were the first eugenics contests run at a state fairs (the first held in 1908). By 1920, “Fitter Families” contests were also held at state fairs, where human “stock” was judged alongside cows, pigs, and produce. Contestants completed family trait forms, were examined physically and psychologically, and were graded and awarded prizes as a result. The image below may indicate that there was even a swimsuit competition!
Visit the topics “Better Babies Contests” and “Fitter Families Contests” on the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement site to explore images of the movement.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Susan Lauter on July 13, 2010 at 11:17 am, and is filed under Eugenics Archive. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. |
No comments yet.
Sterilization Laws
about 12 years ago - No comments
Based on a task force recommendation, the North Carolina legislature is considering paying $50,000 to living individuals sterilized by the state against their will or without their knowledge. North Carolina reportedly sterilized 7,600 individuals between 1929 and 1974. However, other American states also passed laws legalizing sterilization; the first was passed in Indiana in 1907…
Eugenics Word of the Day: Miscegenation
about 14 years ago - No comments
Recent news has again brought eugenics into present day politics. The GOP has decided not to endorse the candidacy in New York of Jim Russell for congress due his views published in a paper about 10 years ago. All funding, volunteers, and any other resources are being withdrawn. Russell’s comments about interracial marriage are drawing…
One Hundred Years Later….Eye Color Genes "Visualized"
about 14 years ago - No comments
Understanding the inheritance of eye color has been a challenge for decades. Most parents try to make their best guess about their unborn child’s eye color, hoping for that warm brown or the more rare bright blue outcome. Davenport and other eugenicists oversimplified eye-color inheritance early in the last century, and we have since come…
Involuntary Sterilization?
about 14 years ago - No comments
A North Carolina-based charity’s initiative to pay drug and alcohol abusers to be sterilized or choose long-term birth control (IUD) has popped up recently in my Google “eugenics” news alert. Once an addict proves they have had a procedure to prevent pregnancy, they are given $300. Several thousand individuals have participated in the program in…
Positive Eugenics?
about 14 years ago - No comments
Recently a campaign by a Georgia anti-abortion group featured billboards that depicted a black baby and the text “Black children are an endangered species.” [See this Associated Press article.] As you may imagine, the billboards were instantly controversial and provoked heated discussion among abortion-rights and anti-abortion activists. Motivated by the desire to promote an agenda,…
Eliminating Undesirable Traits
about 14 years ago - No comments
Eugenics aimed to eliminate undesirable traits. But how do you define “undesirable”? There is anecdotal evidence that the incidence of some disorders has decreased due to genetic testing (see “Testing Curbs Some Genetic Diseases,” by Marilyn Marchione). In and of itself, this is a good thing, but is this eugenics? It would be hard to…
Contemporary Carrie Buck?
about 14 years ago - No comments
Recently, a 35-year-old woman sued a Boston-area hospital for performing a tubal ligation, thus sterilizing her, after the birth of her 9th child. Tessa Savicki states that she requested an IUD, a reversible form of birth control. Because two of her children are on welfare and she is unemployed, Tessa’s case has sparked passionate reactions…
Colbert on Eugenics
about 14 years ago - No comments
Recently on The Colbert Report, in typically tongue in cheek fashion, “You-genics” was highlighted in “The Word” segment (October 28, 2009). Colbert’s discussion was tied in with our nation’s current health care debate – who is and isn’t coverable, what constitutes a pre-existing condition, and how to breed an insurable individual. Taken literally, Colbert’s words…
Hybrid Vigor in Corn and People
about 14 years ago - No comments
The recent completion of the maize (corn) genome sequence gives us pause to think about the historical connection between agriculture and eugenics. It also causes us to consider why the leading American eugenicist, Charles Davenport, failed take greater stock in the corn research going on at one of several institutions he presided over at Cold…
The Continuum of Eugenics Practice
about 15 years ago - No comments
Francis Galton, the English scientist who coined the term, defined eugenics as “the agencies under social control that improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.” Charles Davenport, the father of the American eugenics movement called it simply “the self direction of human evolution.” These definitions stress differences that occupied…
