No one can debate that government, and society in general, stepping in to help the downtrodden in society is a good thing. The Progressive Era saw a lot of good done for a lot of people.
But...a nasty downside of this era was population control. In a movement known as "eugenics" some groups in America took it upon themselves to determine who among us should be allowed to have children. Essentially...if we take away certain people's abilities to have children we can get rid of undesirable traits in our society.
Of course, "playing God" in that way is a dangerous proposition.
Take a look at these sources on the eugenics movement. For the comments, write 200 words detailing your reaction to this movement? Did you know about this part of our history? What do you think about the eugenics movement?
1-https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/07/469478098/the-supreme-court-ruling-that-led-to-70-000-forced-sterilizations
2-https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2011/06/01/136849387/found-in-the-archives-americas-unsettling-early-eugenics-movement
After reading the two articles on the eugenics movement I was shocked. I never knew that this was a part of our country’s history or that this was an actual thing. I think that the eugenics movement was strange because what it was talking about. I thought that it was interesting and wrong that this certain movement stated who or what kind of people could get married. I also thought that it was interesting how the eugenics movement was mentioned in things like books, pamphlets and photographs. I didn’t know that this movement was introduced in the 20th century or that it was a dark time in the United States history. I found very interesting that one of the most famous people in the United States Alexander Graham Bell said that people who were deaf should not be allowed to even get married. I had no idea that eugenicists mostly called out people that were deaf. The eugenics movement according to my view was very insane and does not really make any sense whatsoever. I found it very interesting and strange that The American Eugenics Society had even made a chart called The Triangle of Life which talked about Eugenics. (200 Words)
ReplyDeleteEugenics is a term used for something on the downside of what took place during the Progressive Era. Simply defined by Google, eugenics is "the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics." Due to the issues of population control during this era, and in 1927, the United States Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 that those who were deemed "unfit to procreate" would be sterilized, thus not allowing them to procreate. Some believed that we could further the development of human life by "helping nature" and planning who would be able to reproduce offspring. In the 19th century over 70,000 people were sterilized because they were viewed as "unfit to procreate", and victims of this included people who were "mentally deficient". I personally am not a fan of this at all, and I believe that anyone should be able to reproduce no matter their "situation". It is an American right to have freedom, and disabling certain people from reproduction is essentially taking away their freedom. What happened in the 1900's is happening today in a different way because scientists are looking into genetic modification and engineering of humans. This would allow parents to basically "build-a-baby", which I do not believe God intended to happen. Eugenics and population control are difficult areas to discuss, but I do not believe eugenics is right. (Word Count: 231) -Eric Badger
ReplyDeleteI haven’t even gotten to finish the article yet because I am feeling extremely upset. I know that God designed women to give birth. If He did not want a certain person to have a child, He can handle that alone. God doesn’t need the government coming in and taking away the birth rights of a woman because the mother is “unfit.” God decides that. 70,000 people being sterilized is a lot of babies that could’ve been born. The world needs variety. Everyone can’t be the same. God made us different. Peoples rights in the time were getting pulled left and right. Segregation was already a massive problem. If they think sterilizing women against their will is gonna make the country less “drama,” they are immensely wrong. Taking away more rights doesn’t make life easier for anyone. One of the characteristics they considered hereditary was criminality. I strongly disagree that this makes a woman unfit to be a mother. If someone in the family was or is a criminal, that doesn’t mean their future kids or grandkids are going to act the same way. The government is giving their opinion on what things are bad attributes. They can’t decide that. Another thing they think is a valid reason for this law is because they selectively breed their animals. They believe that they can do it to humans too. It’s so wrong because animals were designed to procreate for human survival. We eat livestock. Humans shouldn’t be put together to be a certain way. I have to wonder what they did to the children who didn’t come out the way they wanted them too. Do they kill them?
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For my blog we read the articles you have to us. While reading the articles I got a little upset about it. While reading you learn a lot about the eugenics and their photographs and the scrapbook. When reading I read about how deaf people were targeted a lot in the day and age and that’s not right. They were basically in a way trying to control their life and saying how deaf people should not even be married and that was not their right to even say that. In the other article we learn about the case buck vs bell which was centered on Carrie buck who the state said was “feeble minded”. This case was considered to be a victory for the eugenics movement in America. It made me a little upset that they were “deeming” people unfit to pro create which is bogus cause no one has the right to even say that. Everyone has the right to decided if they want to pro create and no one has the right to tell a person if they can or can not. America is crazy and people are just crazy in general thinking that they can say things like that about subjects like this (207)
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article about Eugenics i feel angry because something like this happened. Eugenics was a term that felt that it was improving the human population by the way the world wanted it to be back then. This term started with the Nazis who felt that if someone was handicap or so they weren’t considered to be a human or atleast considered as a full human. They felt that if someone had a problem ( something they felt that was wrong) that their kids would inherit it or so. They felt everything came from your parents so how they felt about your parents that's basically how they felt about you. If you had a problem with you you weren't accepted in the community, basically they were labeled as being different. I feel that all people should be counted the same no matter what problems they have, their disabilities, parents, and wherever they come from. God made us all in his image so were considered perfect i his eyes so why should we look down on someone else. Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
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After reading both of these articles given, I am honestly in complete shock and upset that our Supreme Court voted for this to happen. I never knew this existed before It says that as many as 70,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized during the 20th century and this is honestly very heartbreaking. A lot of children could have been born during this time but instead this large number of people were not able to have children. I do not know why the Supreme Court thought this was a great idea and even to make it worse, it was a 8 to 1 vote. I do not believe it is right at all to call these people “mentally deficient.” I believe this is completely inappropriate and just wrong to label people as this. Especially deaf, blind, and people who had diseases should still be able to make the decision if they are wanting to have their child or not. It is upsetting that poor women and minorities were mainly targeted. I believe a woman or her and her husband should be able to make the decision if they do not want to procreate. I believe it is their decision to choose and they should not be forced to make a decision they possibly had never wanted to make. (217 words)
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the reason they ( the eugenic process) wanted to “sterilize” the women (control procreation) was because of their selfishness and their mindset of what they think was the best way (utopia). That’s just wrong. It’s like in China the citizens can only (usually) have one child. The government stresses this so that society will be in order. That means, whenever a mother gets pregnant with more than one child that they have to get rid of the second kid. Some of the children either, one: get dropped off at an orphanage, or two: get left on the street. I say these things in comparison, because this process isn’t entirely over yet in some parts of the world. I do not think this is what the Lord intended for us when he said to, “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”- Genesis 9:7, they/they’re did/doing the opposite. So, I don’t think that what they did, I’m going to y’all about the past, was right. Some women are unable to bear children , but the majority can. The process was more harm than none. It killed children and killed mothers mentally and emotionally. As a woman it breaks my heart, because the Lord embedded in me a motherly desire, so to see that the women that had to be sterilized hurts me. At last, I think that this process was a way to create an Utopia, but the only Utopia is Heaven. They played themselves.
ReplyDeleteI am honestly very upset that the Supreme Court voted to uphold a state's right to forcibly sterilize a person considered unfit to procreate. I never thought that something like this would exists in a country that is known for freedom. In the article it says that as many as 70,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized during the 20th century. This is so heartbreaking. A lot of children could have been born, but instead this large number of people were not able to have children. I don't understand why the Supreme Court thought this was a good idea. The U.S. Supreme Court decided, by a vote of 8 to 1. It makes me even more angry when I read that deaf, blind, poor women, minorities and people who had diseases where the most targeted. The Supreme Court was trying to takes Gods role, God told Adam and Eve to conceive and fill up the world, but the Supreme Count was telling the people the opposite. Children are a blessing from God, they were just thinking selfishly by making the country “better” some people are a certain way for a reason. Instead of trying to vanish them the government should have helped them. Word count: 203
ReplyDeleteAfter reading these two articles I learned a lot that I had never heard before. They were trying to create the perfect society by preventing certain people from having children. Reading this made me very sad because a lot of people just dream of having a family and because of this rule they couldn’t achieve their dream. Some of the rules seemed ridiculous and unfair. They were taking away personal rights. They made their own standards of what and who a person should be and if anybody did not meet up to those standards then they were considered “unqualified” to have children. Alexander Graham Bell said that deaf people should not get married. Even the things that some people could not help or control, they got discriminated for and got very personal and special rights taken away. I think that this movement was a very sad and harsh thing to do. Having a perfect society would be amazing but I personally think you find having a unified society in being respectful and loving to one another. I don’t think physical characteristics make a bad society. I also don’t believe that things you cannot control should be judged harshly for. Overall, this movement seemed very unfair and heartbreaking. (207)
ReplyDeleteThe Eugenics movement was a terrible thing in American History. We took people away from there families and but them in to a camp as if they were prisoners of war. These people didn’t really have anything wrong with they had something “unfit” or “not normal”. These movement is the exact same as what Adolf Hitler did during WWI, when trying to make a superior called “the Aryan.” I never knew about this part in American history and this shines a big light on all the terrible things that America has in its past. Plus the terrible things that America has done has resurfaced in my memory from the things that we’ve learned. Such as us blaming Spain for the sinking of the USS Maine when we really didn’t know what had happened and assumed that they bombed us. The eugenics movement was a terrible thing for America because it caused many people to not have children and have families. It didn’t let those the parents of these people but in camps get to experience of being a grandmother. Most importantly though the amount of people in these camps was 70,000 people. This is a topic that should be taught in ever school because it shows America isn’t perfect as we are portrayed to be.
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