ABSTRACT

Eugenics displays signs of a comeback in a suitably subtle form and under nicer names. Scientists have proclaimed the discoveries of "definite" genetic causes for phenomena as intricate and disparate as homosexuality, shyness, homelessness, schizophrenia, manic-depression, and autism and perhaps even for the arrogance to advance such extravagant claims. Eugenics bestowed the warm blessings of science on the self-aggrandizing designs of privileged groups. President Theodore Roosevelt was always as strenuous a eugenicist as he was a sportsman. The eugenics movement was founded on the deceptively commonsensical doctrine that mental characteristics pass from one generation to another as reliably as physical ones, such as blue eyes or brown hair. The Eugenics Society applauded Nazi programs up to the outbreak of war. "Many far-sighted men and women in both America and England", wrote an enthusiast, have long been working toward something very like what Hitler has now made compulsory.