Darwinism all the way: crossing the line between selection and eugenics authors: Paulius Patalavičius, Rimantas Andrulevičius, Titas Braukyla, Povilas Andrijauskas, Ignacio Villalon This talk was presented at the International Symposium on "Is evolution the smartest form of creation?" at Pedralbes, Barcelona, 3-1-2016

1. Darwinism all the way:
crossing the line between selection
and eugenics
Paulius Patalavičius
Rimantas Andrulevičius
Titas Braukyla
Povilas Andrijauskas
Ignacio Villalon

2. Artificial selection
Darwin noted that
humans have modified
other species
Select and breed
individuals with
desired traits
Selective breeding=
artificial selection

3. Artificial selection in plants

4. Francis Galton (1822 – 1911)
“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"

5. Positive eugenics
• Financial incentives to have children
• Selective incentives for childbearing
• Taxation of the childless
• Ethical obligations of the elite
• Eugenic immigration

6. Negative eugenics
• Reduction of unplanned pregnancies and
births
• Promoting the use of contraception
• Abortion
• Sterilization
– of the "mentally retarded“
– of criminals

7. Eugenics in ancient civilizations
Sparta Rome

8. Eugenics in ancient civilizations
Spartans. Their principles and procedures were well known- no one showing birth defects
must survive; therefore he/she should be thrown off the cliffs. In those times, Spartans
showed no embarrassment in having such an original pit at the periphery of their city,
reserved for the disposal of "human garbage".
Romans were quite comfortable with abortion and baby killing. Even healthy but
"inopportune" babies, such as the ones resulted from "professional" relations between
prostitutes and their clients were left to die at the garbage pit.
Archaeological investigations showed that in Roman bordellos special "baby disposal"
facilities were available. When specialists first discovered such a facility, they suspected
that they have found an ordinary water well, to which it resembled, at first glance. At
second glance, to say so, the archaeologists became horrified. The "well" contained
dozens of little skeletons, most likely the remains of the undesired babies born by
prostitutes in the ancient bordello where the well was discovered. Roman society,
similarly to its illustrious Spartan precedent had to be protected from the invasion of
unwanted citizens.

9. The end of ancient eugenics -
Christianity
Crimes against unwanted people are regarded as
abominable because:
1. God only gives life and we have no right to end it;
2. No existence is useless, God left us all here with a
purpose;
3. All people are equal in humanness, we cannot
discriminate between higher and lesser quality
"human products" deciding, on such basis, who
has or has not the right to live among us;
4. We owe mercy to the less fortunate, not cruelty.

10. Francisc Galton:
the father of modern eugenics
• We must save society from
“regression towards the
mean”
• “Genius” and “talent” were
hereditary traits in humans.
• Human civilization potentially
thwarted the mechanisms of
natural selection

11. UNITED KINGDOM
• It has a lot of supporters like
Winston Churchill.
• John Maynard Keynes
defined eugenics as "the
most important, significant
and, I would add, genuine
branch of sociology which
exists”
• Eugenics never received
significant state funding
• 1913: proposal of Mental
Deficiency Act

12. UNITED KINGDOM
• 1913: proposal of Mental
Deficiency Act
• The 1913 Mental Deficiency Act proposed the mass
segregation of the "feeble minded" from the rest of
society.[34] Sterilisation programmes were never legalised,
although some were carried out in private upon the
mentally ill by clinicians who were in favour of a more
widespread eugenics plan.[33] Indeed, those in support of
eugenics shifted their lobbying of Parliament from
enforced to voluntary sterilization, in the hope of achieving
more legal recognition.[33] But leave for the Labour
Party Member of Parliament Major A. G. Church, to
propose a Private Member's Bill in 1931, which would
legalise the operation for voluntary sterilization, was
rejected by 167 votes to 89.[
• Chesterton: Eugenics and other evils

13. Its emphasis was more upon social class,
rather than race.

14. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

15. • The emphasis was in genetical diseases and
in race.
• State laws were written in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries to prohibit marriage and
force sterilization of the mentally ill in order to
prevent the "passing on" of mental illness to
the next generation.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the
1927 Buck v. Bell case that the state
of Virginia could sterilize individuals under
the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924
• between 1907 and 1963, over 64,000
individuals were forcibly sterilized under
eugenics legislation in the United States

16. Eugenics Record Office (ERO)
• Founded by Charles
Davenport in 1910
• They collected a mass
of family pedigrees
and concluded that
those who were unfit
came from
economically and
socially poor
backgrounds

17. “Solutions” of the problem of the “unfit”:
• Davenport favored inmigration
restrinction and sterilization
• Goddard favored segregation
• Madison Grant favored all of the above
and more, even entertaining the idea of
extermination.
About Grant’s book “The Passing of the
Great Race” Adolf Hitler wrote: “The book
is my Bible”.

18. Anti-misgenation laws
Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of
1924:
1. forbidding interracial marriage
2. Indians reclassified as colored
3. Involuntary sterilization
Supreme Court, repeals and
apology: 1967–2002
Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, inspired by the eugenic
belief in the racial superiority of "old stock" white Americans
as members of the "Nordic race" (a form of white supremacy),
strengthened the position of existing laws prohibiting race-
mixing

19. GERMANY
Adolf Hitler’s
eugenics
attempted to
maintain a
"pure" Aryan race

20. • The Nazi regime used forced
sterilization on hundreds of
thousands of people whom
they viewed as mentally and
physically unfit, an estimated
400.000 between 1934 and
1937.
• Compulsory euthanasia
programs as Aktion T4
• The holocaust of the Jews
• Research using human material
at Auschwitz death camp.

21. Dr. Joseph DeJarnette in 1938 wrote:
"Germany in six years has sterilized about
80,000 of her unfit while the United States —
with approximately twice the population — has
only sterilized about 27,869 in the past 20
years. ... The fact that there are 12,000,000
defectives in the U.S. should arouse our best
endeavors to push this procedure to the
maximum... The Germans are beating us at our
own game.“
Dr. Joseph DeJarnette, director of the Western State Hospital in Staunton, Virginia, was a
leading advocate of eugenics. DeJarnette was unsatisfied with the pace of America's
eugenics sterilization programs.

22. Widely condamned but not forgotten
Nuremberg trials

23. Widely condamned but not forgotten
• Asociated with atrocities conducted by
Nazis and mostly abandoned after WW2.
• Some countries including Sweden and the
US still continued to carry out forced
sterilizations
• Moved to new grounds

24. Liberal eugenics
Also known as new eugenics and
consumer eugenics
The choice is left to the individual
preferences of parents acting as
consumers, rather than the public health
policies of the state.

25. Project Prevention
• (formerly Children Requiring a Caring
Kommunity or CRACK)
• American non-profit organization that pays
drug addicts cash for volunteering for long-
term birth control, including sterilization.
• “Those resources we do have are spent to
prevent a problem for $300 rather than
paying millions after it happens in cost to care
for a potentially damaged child.“

26. New possibilities
• Artificial insemination by donor
– Genius sperm bank (1980-1999)
• Egg donation
• Prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders and
pregnancy terminations of defective fetuses
• Embryo selection
• Genetic engineering
• Gene therapy
• Cloning

27. Then the line begins to blur..
Eugenics is no longer ex post facto regulation
of the living but instead preemptive action on
the unborn. (from Wikipedia)
• Is the unborn not considered human?

28. Fetus with Down Syndrome

29. The purpose?
Specific “purpose” given to animals and
plants by human gives the meaning to
the artificial selection and guide the
species towards it.

30. Human
• Created in God's image
• Pinnacle of evolution
“Called to evolve” -… towards what?
Can he be guided towards the
“purpose”, what is that “purpose” and
are we really able to find it or provide it?

31. Species once lost…
Distinctive traits:
• The “right” genes
• Cure or disease? - recessive disease
traits (e.g. Tay-Sachs)
• Making a sacrifice for the sake of..?