eugenics
English
Etymology
Coined by Francis Galton in 1883.[1] From ἐΰς (eǘs, “good”) + γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “breeding”), “well-bred”, “good in stock”. Parallel to Eugene. By surface analysis, eugenic + -s.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /juːˈd͡ʒɛnɪks/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
eugenics (uncountable)
- (sociology, biology) A social philosophy or practice which advocates the improvement of human hereditary qualities through selective breeding, either by encouraging people with superior genetic qualities to reproduce (positive eugenics), or discouraging people with inferior genetic qualities from reproducing (negative eugenics), or by technological means.
- 2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 77:
- In keeping with the goals of the new eugenics movement, McCulloch was claiming to offer scientific evidence of the incorrigibility of poor rural whites.
- 2018 October 16, John Blake, “When Americans tried to breed a better race: How a genetic fitness ‘crusade’ marches on”, in CNN[1]:
- The eugenics mania that swept the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to forced sterilizations and the passage of laws in 27 states designed to limit the numbers of those considered genetically unfit: immigrants, Jews, African-Americans, the mentally ill and those deemed “morally delinquent.”
Derived terms
- antieugenics
- consumer eugenics
- eugenic
- eugenically
- eugenicide
- eugenicist
- eugenocide
- in vitro eugenics
- liberal eugenics
- negative eugenics
- neo-eugenics
- new eugenics
- positive eugenics
- stealth eugenics
- techno-eugenics
Translations
social philosophy
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See also
References
- ^ Francis Galton (1883), Inquiries into human faculty and its development, page 24:
- This is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, eugeneia, etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. […] We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock […] The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalised one than viriculture, which I once ventured to use.