THX-1138

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0%2c12780%2c1523838%2c00.html

O.K. but he is still a DICK

Thanks. However, I do know my history, and the description does appear to be quite accurate concerning eugenics. Indeed many are not familiar with the term eugenics, but forced sterilization is a part of eugenics. Here's a description from Georgetown University, perhaps this will have more credibility. Forgive the lengthy description, but history is difficult to summarize briefly. First published in June 1995, Scope Note 28 is an annotated bibliography with links to electronic texts and/or sites where possible. It is updated on a periodic basis. Introduction The word eugenics (from the Greek eugenes or "...good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities") was coined in 1883 by Francis Galton in his Inquiries into the Human Faculty. An Englishman and cousin of Charles Darwin, Galton applied Darwinian science to develop theories about heredity and good or noble birth. (V. Galton 1883; 1907, p. 17);( I. Kevles 1985, pp. 3-19). "Eugenics is a word with nasty connotations but an indeterminate meaning." (I. Paul, 1998, p. 99).The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics' entry for eugenics notes that the term has had different meanings over time: "...a science that investigates methods to ameliorate the genetic composition of the human race, a program to foster such betterment; a social movement; and in its perverted form, a pseudo-scientific retreat for bigots and racists" (V, Ludmerer 1978, p. 457). With a stronger emphasis on its degeneration, Kelves says that by 1935 "...eugenics had become `hopelessly perverted' into a pseudoscientific facade for `advocates of race and class prejudice, defenders of vested interests of church and state, Fascists, Hitlerites, and reactionaries generally'" (I, Kevles 1985, p. 164). Phrases such as "survival of the fittest" and "struggle for existence" came into use at the end of the 19th century when eugenics societies were created throughout the world to popularize genetic science. "Negative eugenics" initiatives included marriage restriction, sterilization, or custodial commitment of those thought to have unwanted characteristics. "Positive eugenics" programs tried to encourage the population perceived as the "best and brightest" to have more offspring (V, Ludmerer, 1978, p. 459). The eugenics entry in the revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics adds the concepts of "macro eugenics" (policies focusing on groups) and "micro eugenics" (activities involving individuals or families). ""Positive macro eugenics occurs when whole cultural or ethnic groups with 'desirable' genes are given incentives to adopt procreative methods that give them a selective advantage over other groups...[while]...a program with a micro eugenic impact is one in which an individual couple and their extended family are afforded access to greater genetic choice than is the norm." (I. Lappe 1995, pp. 771-772). The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics references the terms "...laissez-faire eugenics, a hands-off approach that presumes that everyone will make their own individual choices - and a utopian eugenics, where as a matter of public policy there is an attempt to make available to all sectors of society the information and technology to make those choices." (I. Duster 2004, p. 854). Many texts and images important in the history of eugenics are located in an online archive developed by Dolan DNA Learning Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, New York. In the United States after World War I, new ideas like the importance of environmental influences and the more complex concept of multi-gene effects in inheritance had slowed scientific justification for eugenics, but this knowledge did not slow pressure for legislation, judicial action, or immigration controls. Such measures were supported by organized religions - Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic - all promoting eugenics at official functions. To support the notion that eugenics was a "...science whose message moved effortlessly from laboratory to church", the American Eugenics Society sponsored a cross-country "eugenics sermon contest" (III. Rosen 2004, p. 4). The U.S. Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 favored immigration from northern Europe and greatly restricted the entry of persons from other areas referred to as "biologically inferior." Between 1907 and 1937 thirty-two states required sterilization of various citizens viewed as undesirable: the mentally ill or handicapped, those convicted of sexual, drug, or alcohol crimes and others viewed as "degenerate" (V, Larson 1991). In Germany, interest in eugenics flourished after the turn of the century when Dr. Alfred Ploetz founded the Archives of Race-Theory and Social Biology in 1904 and the German Society of Racial Hygiene in 1905. The German term Rassenhygiene or race hygiene was broader than the word eugenics; it included all attempts at improving hereditary qualities as well as measures directed at population increase (III, Weiss 1987). By the 1920s various German textbooks incorporated ideas of heredity and racial hygiene, and German professors were participating in the international eugenics movement. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927; by 1933 a sterilization law which had been entitled "Eugenics in the service of public welfare" indicated compulsory sterilization "for the prevention of progeny with hereditary defects" in cases of "congenital mental defects, schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, hereditary epilepsy... and severe alcoholism." (III, M

Eugenics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through social intervention. The goals have variously been to create more healthy, intelligent people, save society resources, and lessen human suffering. Proposed means of achieving these goals most commonly include prenatal testing and screening, genetic counseling, birth control, selective breeding, In vitro fertilisation, and genetic engineering. Critics argue that eugenics is a pseudoscience, that it has a potential for "objectifying" human characteristics, and that historically it has been a means whereby social thinking culminated in coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, even genocide. Selective breeding of human beings was suggested at least as far back as Plato, but the modern field was first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1865, drawing on the recent work of his cousin, Charles Darwin. From its inception, eugenics (derived from the Greek "well born" or "good breeding") was supported by prominent thinkers (including Alexander Graham Bell and W.E.B. DuBois) and was an academic discipline at many colleges and universities. Its scientific reputation tumbled in the 1930s, a time when Ernst R