A call for a new definition of eugenics

Abstract

"As we will see, eugenics has always been a protean concept. Almost from the start of debate, eugenics has meant different things to different people. Eugenics comes from the Greek word eugenes meaning "good in birth". In 1883 Francis Galton started using the word" eugenics" defining it as the "science of improving stock-not only by judicious mating, but whatever tends to give the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had." Galton later experimented with a variety of different formulations such as "the study of agencies under social control which may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations", and "the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race: also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage" In all of these definitions, eugenics sounds rather innocuous. Most medical genetics would fall within its domain (1)."