Ethical and Social Issues

The science of improving human evolution through breeding is known as ‘eugenics’. The world comes from the Greek, meaning ‘good in birth’.

Its scientific origins began in the late 19th century and was popularised by Francis Galton - Charles Darwin's cousin. Galton was convinced that good breeding was the way to improve human stock – exactly as with livestock. Eugenics has been in and out of favour ever since.

In the early part of the 20th century, America embraced eugenics. The great industrialists of the time feared that the burgeoning superpower was being eroded by immigrants, who were genetically inferior to the pioneering northern Europeans who had first settled there. Across the US, laws were passed banning marriage for people with mental illness, sexually transmitted diseases, epileptics and even alcoholics. According to historian Daniel Kevles - author of In the Name of Eugenics - over 20,000 Americans had been forcibly sterilized by 1930.

Of course, the rise of Nazi Germany put paid to any constructive elements eugenics may have had. The horrors of genetic and ethnic cleansing that emerged during World War II meant that biological determinism was most definitely off the menu – that is until Robert Graham set up shop.