Category: Eugenics

Indiana’s 1907 eugenics program is a chapter of history we’d all like to forget, which is exactly why it is all the more important that we remember

Editor’s note. My family and I will be on our vacation through August 27. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked. This appeared on the webpage of Indiana Right to Life. When …

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Is killing the disabled ‘eugenics’, or just a merciful release

By Michael Cook Eugenics is not a word to be trifled with. It evokes the horror of Nazi atrocities during World War II as well as widespread human rights violations in the early part of the 20th Century in the United States, Canada and some European countries. But, contend the authors of a special issue …

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Yes, abortion is historically linked to eugenics

Even today, some bioethicists insist that parents should ‘improve the stock’ By Christopher M. Reilly Advocates for abortion rights are claiming that a recent legal opinion of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which described abortion as a tool of eugenics, is merely an incoherent “rant.” They argue that his well-researched, 20-page document conflates the free …

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Eugenics Is Still with Us: Death in the Name of ‘Best Interests’

By John Stonestreet with G. Shane Morris Eugenics is a bad idea, a bad idea that, like all bad ideas, has victims. Efforts to keep those deemed inferior from reproducing or even existing were a central part of the Nazi experiment in Germany, which upended the entire world and led to the extermination of millions …

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Carrie Buck and the old eugenics, the new eugenics and Alfie Evans

By Dave Andrusko About once a week my search for “Today in History” turns up a reminder, positive or negative, of something that pro-lifers should carefully ponder. Ninety two years ago today, in the infamous Buck v. Bell, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law that allowed the forced sterilization of people to …

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Bioethicists Push Insurance-Paid Eugenic Engineering

By Wesley J. Smith Here’s another example of that cultural inflation. Two of the world’s most influential bioethicists want health insurance to pay the cost of applying expensive biotechnologies to allow people to have their progeny engineered to possess “desirable” characteristics that will flow down the generations — a new form of eugenics. Let’s call …

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6th Circuit panel hears oral arguments in Ohio’s ban on eugenic abortions

By Dave Andrusko A crucial step in Ohio’s efforts to ban abortions for the sole reason that the baby has Down syndrome took place in Cincinnati yesterday before a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals . Chief Judge R. Guy Cole, Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, and Judge Alice Batchelder were asked by …

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The Nazi taint in ‘Asperger’s syndrome’

Dr. Hans Asperger consigned dozens of children in Nazi Vienna to certain death, claims new book. By Francis Phillips Editor’s note. The following is a book review of “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna,” by Edith Sheffer. Norton & Company. Historian Michael Burleigh’s book, Death and Deliverance, a detailed indictment of the …

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Eugenics’ Deadly Legacy

By Wesley J. Smith We’ve seen it happen: A new assault on the sanctity of human life appears—say, infanticide being promoted in a major bioethics journal, or officials in Iceland bragging that no children with Down syndrome are born there, thanks to prenatal genetic screening—and some horrified opponents respond in horror, “That’s what the Nazis …

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Carrie Buck and the old eugenics, Alfie Evans and the new eugenics

By Dave Andrusko About once a week my search for “Today in History” turns up a reminder, positive or negative, of something that pro-lifers should carefully ponder. Ninety one years ago today, in Buck v. Bell, the United States Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law that allowed the forced sterilization of people to promote the …

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Abortion, Eugenics, and the corrosion of unconditional parental love

By Wesley J. Smith Ruth Marcus has boldly declared that if she were pregnant and discovered her baby had Down syndrome, that child would never see the light of day. From her column: Down syndrome is life-altering for the entire family. I’m going to be blunt here: That was not the child I wanted. That …

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The Deadly Legacy of Eugenics

By Wesley J. Smith We’ve seen it happen: A new assault on the sanctity of human life appears—say, infanticide being promoted in a major bioethics journal, or officials in Iceland bragging that no children with Down syndrome are born there, thanks to prenatal genetic screening—and some horrified opponents respond in horror, “That’s what the Nazis …

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