The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom, [ 6 ] and then spread to many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, [ 7 ] and most European countries e. Sweden and Germany. In this period, people from across the political spectrum espoused eugenic ideas.
Consequently, many countries adopted eugenic policies, intended to improve the quality of their populations' genetic stock. Historically, the idea of eugenics has been used to argue for a broad array of practices ranging from prenatal care for mothers deemed genetically desirable to the forced sterilization and murder of those deemed unfit. Haldane wrote in that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent.
Although it originated as a progressive social movement in the 19th century, [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] in contemporary usage in the 21st century, the term is closely associated with scientific racism. New, liberal eugenics seeks to dissociate itself from old, authoritarian eugenics by rejecting coercive state programs and relying on parental choice.
Eugenic programs included both positive measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and negative measures, such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit for reproduction. In other words, positive eugenics is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged, for example, the eminently intelligent, the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning.
This includes abortions, sterilization, and other methods of family planning. In a New York Times article of May 23, , Rose Field notes of the description, "the simplest [is] efficient living". The influential historian of education Abraham Flexner questions its scientific value in stating:.
