Apple-Pie Eugenics: War Against the Weak

BreakPoint ^ | 2 Oct 03 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

See if you can guess the source of this quote. "It is better for all the world . . . [if] society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind . . . Three generations of imbeciles is enough."

If you think that this quote came from a Nazi document, you're wrong. It's from Oliver Wendell Holmes's 1927 majority opinion in BUCK V. BELL that upheld a Virginia law mandating the sterilization of the "feebleminded."

Twenty years later, Holmes's words were thrown back in our face by Nazi defendants in the Nuremberg trials. You see, while the Nazis' worst crimes may have ended at Auschwitz, they "began on Long Island."

That's the conclusion of a new book, WAR AGAINST THE WEAK: EUGENICS AND AMERICA'S CAMPAIGN TO CREATE A MASTER RACE written by Edwin Black, who contends that American "corporate philanthropies helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele."

Eugenics, which literally means "good birth," originally referred to the use of selective breeding to "improve" the human race. Of course, what was meant by "improve" reflected the racism and bigotry of the eugenicists. Blacks, Jews, Eastern and Southern Europeans, the retarded, and even people with brown hair were the targets of the "improvers."

Thus, between 1900 and the mid-sixties, "hundreds of thousands of Americans . . . were not permitted to continue their families by reproducing." Black compares it to "ethnic cleansing," and he's right.

The tools of American eugenics included forcible sterilization, commitment to mental institutions, prohibitions against marriage, and even dissolution of already existing marriages. One Michigan legislator went so far as to introduce a bill calling for the electrocution of severely retarded infants.

Eventually, American eugenics, with help from the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, Margaret Sanger, and others, found its way to Germany. While "Nazi eugenics quickly outpaced American eugenics in both velocity and ferocity," Black writes, the connection between the two was never lost. As one American eugenicist told the Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH, "the Germans are beating us at our own game."

The Holocaust and other crimes of the Third Reich made eugenics a bad word, and the American connection was quickly swept under the rug. But the attempt to play God "never really stopped."

Today it takes the form of "human genomic science and corporate globalization." Instead of racist declarations, we have "polished PR campaigns" that hold out the promises of biotech: miracle cures and ever-increasing life expectancies.

While the word eugenics is never used, that's what it is. We are intent on eliminating "imperfection" from the gene pool. Even today, children whose "deformities" are discovered in utero are rarely permitted to be born. And as genetic technology improves, the list of those whom Black calls the "never-born" will continue to expand.

If the "abolition of man" is to be stopped, this story must be told. Christians need to pull the truth about eugenics out from underneath the rug and hold it up as a reminder of where playing God leads us. Six decades of denial is enough.

[Mr. Silverback]

Tell the world. Don't let them forget. We can't afford to just sing louder while the train goes by.

[Mr. Silverback]

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[Mr. Silverback]

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[sc2_ct]

Weren't the founders of Planned Parenthood all Eugenecists?

[Lorianne]

The eugenics movement was quite populare in the first half to of the 20th century. Many prominent well-respected people supported the ideas and it was gaining more and more legitimacy until WWII when, the obvious comparison to Nazi though was unavoidable. Eugenics lost favor quickly.

We forget that many of our states had already enacted legislation to involuntarily sterilize people and worse was being planned.

[LouD]

Three generations of imbeciles is enough.

Wow! Holmes was as prescient as Nostradamus in his ability to foresee the rise to power of the Kennedy family.

[Pete]

Weren't the founders of Planned Parenthood all Eugenecists?

Margaret Sanger started the Birth Control League in 1914 in New York. After WWII, it became the Planned Parenthood federation. Below, I have linked to a newspaper story I posted from 1950. The last line is:

Mrs. Sanger said that the federation should "stress quality as a prime essential in the birth and survival of our population."

That means exactly what it sounds like. She intended birth control and abortion to be used to improve the "quality" of the human race.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/991823/posts?page=65#65

[GovernmentShrinker]

It will make a comeback, and that's not a bad thing in my view. The important issue is who's controlling the application of eugenic principles. If it's a government, it's a terrifying thing (except as punishment for heinous crimes, like child rape), but if free individuals are making their own eugenic decisions, the results will reflect the beliefs and values of all free people, which is a very bright prospect in my book.

[Lorianne]

Perhaps it's a good thing if done passively, like choosing one's mate very carefully.

If it involves people voluntarily killing one's children if they are deemed not worthy of living, or say sterilizing one's children, or any number of possible other scenarios, then I wouldn't say it's a good thing.

I certainly agree about govenment control.

[presidio9]

The eugenics movement is alive and well today. Liberal-minded Americans have aborted 40mm of their offspring since 1973. As a result, this country is more Conservative than it has been in a century.

[.cnI redruM]

"Every child a planned child, every child a wanted child."

It'll build us all a brave new world.

[Zack Nguyen]

This is one of those hidden pieces of American history that is rarely discussed. Eugenics is an outcropping of humanism.

[Zack Nguyen]

The eugenics movement is alive and well today.

I agree. It is interesting how "population control" is only utilized on poor areas - Africa and assorted third world areas. The elites want fewer poor around.

[VOA]

A few years ago, I saw an article from the Northeast about some graduate student who'd
stumbled across a bunch of old, forgotten eugenics records during her research.
I may be confused, but I think the records were from that progressive state...Vermont.

Whether I got the state correct, it was interesting because the student did
track down some of the surviving victims of this system...but the most interesting
comment was about how
the article included a comment from a citizen who observed that one of the victims
had some close relative who'd produced three generations of low-IQ criminals...

I've got to check out this book to see if it discusses The Pioneer Fund, which I heard
mentioned as a funding device for eugenics supported (in part) by FDR.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Choosing not to reproduce, if one has lousy genes, is another option that really shouldn't frighten anyone. And that is very definitely "eugenics".

[GovernmentShrinker]

Maybe the "elites" want less suffering, and a better chance to improve the lives of the poor and suffering, instead of having all efforts to help them neutralized by their ever-expanding numbers. But population control is really separate issue from eugenics. Even a genetically outstanding population will be a pit of misery, if it keeps reproducing faster than it can grow its economy and education levels.

[twigs]

if free individuals are making their own eugenic decisions, the results will reflect the beliefs and values of all free people, which is a very bright prospect in my book.

It's totally chilling in mine. We will not remain free if we continue to thumb our nose at God and play God. Just my humble opinion.

[StriperSniper]

Low IQs 'shouldn't have children' (Denmark)

[Chad Fairbanks]

I can't believe they left out Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger - another Eugenics/Nazi...