Fitter family Contests & Exhibits
To draw attention to eugenical research, The American Eugenics Society sponsored "Fitter Family" contests, using measures of physique, health, behavior, and intelligence to judge which family showed the greatest potential to produce quality children. Often featured were lectures and exhibits at these events in order to demonstrate principles of heredity and to exemplify the threat of American society; the dangerous and defective were reproducing too quickly, while the advantaged of the nation were reproducing too little. Although these competitions seemed innocent enough, they were yet another way to popularize the idea that the unfit of society had no right to produce children.
Critics of eugenics
Critics challenged eugenics on medical, legal, and moral grounds. The popular belief of eugenicists was that degenerate families were increasing dysgenic genes in society. However, Godfrey N. Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg's equilibrium model disproved this claim, stating that sterilizations would never significantly reduce the population of the feebleminded.
"...men behave in different ways, but who can say how far differences in human behavior depend on the physique of the individual, how far on his early experiences and training, and how far on difference in his sense organs and central nervous system? Until some of these questions are better understood it is impossible to know how far observed differences are innate and how far acquired." "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason. " |