Eugenic Policies of the Past Teach Sobering Lessons

In the minds of many, eugenic policies defined as strategies aimed at positively influencing the genetic heritage of a community will always be associated with the abuses of Nazi Germany. What is little known, however, was the influence of Scottish thinkers who backed such policies during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their support has recently been revealed in a new book entitled The Ethics of the New Eugenics published on behalf of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics.

Eugenics, as a specific discipline, emerged during the 1860s with the Englishman Francis Galton, who was greatly influenced by his cousin Charles Darwin, arguing that since many human societies sought to protect the sick and the weak, they were contravening natural selection. Indeed, because of the development of medical care and other social policies, the weakest individuals were now surviving well into a reproductive age, enabling them to pass on their dysfunctions to their children. Galton indicated that only through eugenics could society be saved from a genetic degeneration towards mediocrity.

Probably the best-known Scotsman who supported eugenics at the time was...