America's Deep, Dark Secret

[dArKeR]

Eugenics is usually associated with Nazi Germany, but in fact, it started in America. Not only that, it continued here long after Hitler's Germany was in ruins.

At the height of the movement - in the ‘20s and ‘30s - exhibits were set up at fairs to teach people about eugenics. It was good for America, and good for the human race. That was the message.

But author Michael D'Antonio says it wasn't just a movement. It was government policy. “People were told, we can be rid of all disease, we can lower the crime rate, we can increase the wealth of our nation, if we only keep certain people from having babies,” says D’Antonio.

He says back then, schools tested children regularly, and those classified as feeble-minded got a one-way ticket to Fernald -- or to one of the more than 100 institutions like it.

In 1994 Senate hearings, it came out that scientists from MIT had been giving radioactive oatmeal to the boys - men now - in a nutrition study for Quaker Oats. All they knew is that they'd been asked to join a science club.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/29/60minutes/main614728.shtml

How could this be called a secret? It wasn't a secret, it was in the open. Why hasn't the American Media reported on this before?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. They do every so often

but there may be a method to the madness at CBS

Who knows? Maybe the media has decided that it is time to bail and
join us the little people. CBS may be laying the groundwork for
uncovering the Nazi connections of the Bush Family...

Hey it *could* happen...

When you wish upon a star...

[MoonGod]

4. Seems to me they're talking about it because the guy wrote a book about it

Kinda like how they'll show a clip of "13 Going on 30" if Jennifer Garner is the guest on Letterman.

[DulceDecorum]

24. Charles Darwin

had a cousin, Sir Francis Galton, who coined the term eugenics (meaning well-born) and they both got their ideas from Thomas Malthus.

Darwin's writings are crap,
and I don't care how much flak I get for calling that particular spade a spade. A high school biology course demonstrates his errors but his theories about "the fittest" have permeated Western society and given rise to the ideology behind the notion of pre-emptive war and everlasting terrorism of the non-european.

Übermensch
German term for "Overman" or "Superman." Hence, in the philosophy of Nietzsche, an extraordinary individual who transcends the limits of traditional morality to live purely by the will to power.
http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/u.htm
Sound familiar?

Senior British commanders have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate.
One senior Army officer told The Telegraph that America's aggressive methods were causing friction among allied commanders and that there was a growing sense of "unease and frustration" among the British high command.
The officer, who agreed to the interview on the condition of anonymity, said that part of the problem was that American troops viewed Iraqis as untermenschen - the Nazi expression for "sub-humans".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/11/wtact11.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/04/11/ixnewstop.html

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Untermensch

[worldgonekrazy]

27. And Leonard Darwin (Charles' grandson I believe) championed eugenics

Not a good crowd.

[asthmaticeog]

32. Social Darwinism is NOT a Darwinist idea.

The conflation of Darwin's demonstrably true ideas about natural selection with something called "survival of the fittest" (a circular phrase Darwin never used) came from elsewhere.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. There have been stories covering both the eugenics movement

and abuses of institutionalizing people who were not disabled as a means of population control. I cannot recall reading about this specific institution nor the graphic details in this story (which are horrifying) but I was aware this had occurred.

Usually when programs have covered it in the past (in fact I know 60 Minutes has covered some aspects of this in the past as did Unsolved Mysteries) they have addressed it from the perspective of families being torn apart, or of children being taken by the state but have not gone into the details of the homes/ institutions they were placed in.

I also think a great deal more attention has been paid to the participation of various churches that actually benefited by these laws since they were reimbursed by the states to house these people.

The hairy thing is that eugenics was coopted to a large degree by progressives of the time.

[not systems]

3. Lot's of feeding radioactive food was done in the 50's...

in the early nineties Clinton declassified documentation
that "doctors" had feed radioactive cereal to retarded
children.

No one said sorry.

No one cared.

Life magazine did a large photo spread on the Mengele like
experimentation that was done in the 50's and 60's.

[treepig]

36. do you have more information on these experiments?

after all, there's nothing unusual or particularly sinsister about feeding radioactive cereal - per se - to children. i've done it if you have children, so have you.

but perhaps there's more going on here? is the issue that they were "retarded" and therefore unable to give informed consent?

[not systems]

41. Yes it is criminal to abuse the trust of the unaware.

Well I read about it at the time because it happened
where I lived. This site I found through google has the
experiment I remember listed.

I know you are real radiation lover so I'm sure you can
find some excuse for feeding it to retarded children and
using them like lab rats but here you go.

DOCUMENTATION
Human Radiation Experiments

http://www.aches-mc.org/radiation_exp.html

OT-2. The Use of Iodine-131BLabeled Human Serum Albumin to Evaluate the Peripheral Circulation-1952 at Case Western Reserve University-"young subjects"

OT-3. Use of Iodine-131BLabeled Protein in the Study of Protein Digestion and Absorption in Children With and Without Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas -1952 at Case Western Reserve University
OT-7. Uptake of Iodine-131 in Normal Newborn Infants in Iowa City -1963, the University of Iowa, Iowa City
OT-8. Uptake of Iodine-131 in Normal Newborn Infants in Nebraska-1960-VA Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, and the Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska, College of Medicine
OT-9. Uptake of Iodine-131 in Normal Newborn Infants in Memphis-1952 to 1954-University of Tennessee and John Gaston Hospital
OT-13. Blood Volume Measurements Using Stable Chromium-50 and Radioactive Chromium-51,1969 to1972, newborn infants.
OT-20. Uptake of Iodine-131 by Premature Infants in Detroit, 1954, the Pediatric Division. Radioisotope Laboratory of Harper Hospital, Detroit, Michigan
OT-23. Thyroid Uptake and Urinary Excretion of Iodine-131 in Assessing Thyroid Function-1950s, Pediatric Department, University of Arkansas School of Medicine in Little Rock
OT-25. Study of Iodine-131-Thyroxine Metabolism in
Adolescent and Adult Human Subjects 1961 to 1964 University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock
OT-27. Thyroid Hormone Secretion Studies Using Iodine-131 1963 TO 1964, University of Arkansas Medical Center, Little Rock, youngest 10yrs.
OT-28. Brain Scanning Studies Using Potassium-42,1940s, Neurosurgical and Surgical Services and Laboratories of Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital, and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, some as young as 3mos.
OT-30. Serum Level of Protein Bound Iodine-131 in the
Diagnosis of Hyperthyroidism 1940s, Medical Research
Laboratories, Beth Israel Hospital, and the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston
OT-53. Effect of Phytate on the Absorption of Iron-59 and
Iron-55,1946, Departments of Food Technology and Physics of MIT and Fernald State School in Waverly, Massachusetts.
OT-57. Red Blood-Cell Volumes and Hematocrit in Normal
Pregnancy Using Iron-55, 1948 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Harvard Medical School, the Boston Lying-In Hospital, and the Radioactivity Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OT-59. Study of Iron Turnover by Red Blood Cells Using
Iron-55 and Iron-59,1948 to 1949, Harvard Medical School and,Radioactivity Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one 6-year-old girl with aplastic anemia, a 4-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl with Cooley's anemia
OT-60. Studies of the Metabolism of Maternal Iron in Newborn Infants Using Iron-55, 1948 to 1950,Department of Pediatrics of Harvard MedicalSchool, the Boston Lying-In Hospital, Children's Hospital, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston and the Radioactivity Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OT-61. Thyroid Function Studies Using Iodine-13, 1950s, researchers at the Fernald State School, Waverly, Ma; the Harvard Medical School; the Tufts Medical School; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OT-78. Studies of the Transmission of Radioiodine to Infants Through Maternal Breast Milk, 1950s, researchers in the Departments of Medicine, Medical Laboratories and Radiology, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and the John Gaston Hospital, Memphis
OT-84. Study of Copper Metabolism Using Copper-64
1960s, University of Utah College of Medicine in Salt Lake City, including 72 normal pregnant women (in their third trimester).
OT-89. Cesium-137 and Rubidium-83 Metabolism in Healthy
Subjects and Subjects with Muscular Dystrophy, 1965 AND 1972, Departments ofAnatomy, Medicine, and Radiological Health at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City,39 healthy individuals: 5 infants, ages 17 to 143 days; 5 children, ages 5 to 10 years; 23 adults, ages 21 to 52 years, including 6 pregnant females; and 3 children, ages 4 to 11, with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
OT-94. Potassium Studies in Diseased Patients Using Potassium-42
1950s, Wake Forest College, North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
OT-101. Study of Cooley=s Anemia in Children Using Chromium-51 and Iron-59 1955,University of Washington, Seattle and the Department of Research Children=s Hospital in Los Angeles on four children, with Cooley=s anemia, a genetic blood disorder. The children, ages 4, 6, 9, and 13
OT-103. Sodium Volume Studies in Children and Adults Using Sodium-24
1949 AND 1951, Washington University, St. Louis; St. Louis Children=s Hospital; and St. Louis Maternity Hospital, including 37 male or female infants and children ranging in age from one day to 14 years
OT-104. Estimates of Total-Body Sodium in Infants and Children Using Sodium-24 1950s, Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and St. Louis Children=s Hospital, 21 hospitalized patients ranging in age from 2 weeks to 14 years
UC-41. Use of an Experimental Strontium­90/Yttrium-90 Needle for Radiation Cordotomy Pain Relief,1960s, Department of Neurological Surgery and Roentgenology, University of Chicago Hospital and Clinics collaborated with the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital, ranging in age from 3 to 71
UR-3. Ingestion of Milk Containing Iodine­131 1963 by a graduate student at University of Rochester ranged in age from 6 years to 50 years; seven were less than 21 years old.

[treepig]

43. the point is that you're grossly misrepresenting what went on

from the link you provide, there are one or two sub-links to situations where the mentally challenged were abused - that is indeed atrocious and should obviously never have happened. however, the fact that it involved radioisotopes is basically irrelevant (except for the fact that people become hysterical for some reason the moment radiation is mentioned) - as it turns out much worse medical experiments were done on people unable to give informed consent using completely non-radioactive protocols. i suppose this is a conundrum to be debated by the medical ethists, but a major reason that the development of new therapies has slowed to a snail's pace in recent years is the stringent enforcement of protocols for human medical trials (compared to the 50's and 60's when researchers/physicians could do just about anything with minimal oversight).

btw, did you even read the list you've actually pasted into your post? most of the studies were done on normal, healthy persons - who were most likely not harmed in any way by the experiments. after all, were you aware that if you drink the recommended 8 cups of water per day, and it contained close to the EPA-mandated limit of 30 mg/L of uranium - you would be ingesting about 150,000,000,000,000,000,000 "depleted uranium" (i.e., U-238) atoms every day? Also, if you eat a banana with your cereal, you're adding to the the ~ 250,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of radioactive potassium (K-40) in your body? the point is that we're swimming in a sea of natural radioactivity, and the fact that a bit more is used for medical purposes is not necessary alarming or irresponsible.

in fact, check out the following sites to learn about medical uses of radioisotopes:

http://www.cbvcp.com/nmrc/

this link http://www.uic.com.au/nip26.htm provides a list of ISOTOPES USED IN MEDICINE:

Reactor Radioisotopes (half-life indicated)

Molybdenum-99 (66 h): Used as the 'parent' in a generator to produce technetium-99m.

Technetium-99m (6 h): Used in to image the skeleton and heart muscle in particular, but also for brain, thyroid, lungs (perfusion and ventilation), liver, spleen, kidney (structure and filtration rate), gall bladder, bone marrow, salivary and lacrimal glands, heart blood pool, infection and numerous specialised medical studies.

Bismuth-213 (46 min): Used for TAT.

Chromium-51 (28 d): Used to label red blood cells and quantify gastro-intestinal protein loss.

Cobalt-60 (10.5 mth): Formerly used for external beam radiotherapy.

Copper-64 (13 h): Used to study genetic diseases affecting copper metabolism, such as Wilson's and Menke's diseases.

Dysprosium-165 (2 h): Used as an aggregated hydroxide for synovectomy treatment of arthritis.

Iodine-125 (60 d): Used in cancer brachytherapy (prostate and brain), also diagnostically to evaluate the filtration rate of kidneys and to diagnose deep vein thrombosis in the leg. It is also widely used in radioimmuno-assays to show the presence of hormones in tiny quantities.

Iodine-131 (8 d): Widely used in treating thyroid cancer and in imaging the thyroid; also in diagnosis of abnormal liver function, renal (kidney) blood flow and urinary tract obstruction. A strong gamma emitter, but used for beta therapy.

Iridium-192 (74 d): Supplied in wire form for use as an internal radiotherapy source (used then removed).

Iron-59 (46 d): Used in studies of iron metabolism in the spleen.

Lutetium-177 (6.7 d): Lu-177 is increasingly important as it emits just enough gamma for imaging while the beta radiation does the therapy on small tumours. Its half-life is long enough to allow sophisticated preparation for use.

Palladium-103 (17 d): Used to make brachytherapy permanent implant seeds for early stage prostate cancer.

Phosphorus-32 (14 d): Used in the treatment of polycythemia vera (excess red blood cells). Beta emitter.

Potassium-42 (12 h): Used for the determination of exchangeable potassium in coronary blood flow.

Rhenium-186 (91 h): Used for pain relief in bone cancer. Beta emitter with weak gamma for imaging.

Rhenium-188 (17 h): Used to beta irradiate coronary arteries from an angioplasty balloon.

Samarium-153 (47 h): Sm-153 is very effective in relieving the pain of secondary cancers lodged in the bone, sold as Quadramet. Also very effective for prostate and breast cancer. Beta emitter.

Selenium-75 (120 d): Used in the form of seleno-methionine to study the production of digestive enzymes.

Sodium-24 (15 h): For studies of electrolytes within the body.

Strontium-89 (50 d): Very effective in reducing the pain of prostate cancer. Beta emitter.

Xenon-133 (5 d): Used for pulmonary (lung) ventilation studies.

Ytterbium-169 (32 d): Used for cerebrospinal fluid studies in the brain.

Yttrium-90 (64 h): Used for cancer brachytherapy and as silicate colloid for the synovectomy treatment of arthritis in larger joints. Pure beta emitter.

Radioisotopes of caesium, gold and ruthenium are also used in brachytherapy.

Cyclotron Radioisotopes

Carbon-11, Nitrogen-13, Oxygen-15, Fluorine-18:
These are positron emitters used in PET for studying brain physiology and pathology, in particular for localising epileptic focus, and in dementia, psychiatry and neuropharmacology studies. They also have a significant role in cardiology. F-18 in FDG has become very important in detection of cancers and the monitoring of progress in their treatment, using PET.

Cobalt-57 (272 d): Used as a marker to estimate organ size and for in-vitro diagnostic kits.

Gallium-67 (78 h): Used for tumour imaging and localisation of inflammatory lesions (infections).

Indium-111 (2.8 d): Used for specialist diagnostic studies, eg brain studies, infection and colon transit studies.

Iodine-123 (13 h): Increasingly used for diagnosis of thyroid function, it is a gamma emitter without the beta radiation of I-131.

Krypton-81m (13 sec) from Rubidium-81 (4.6 h): Kr-81m gas can yield functional images of pulmonary ventilation, e.g. in asthmatic patients, and for the early diagnosis of lung diseases and function.

Rubidium-82 (65 h): Convenient PET agent in myocardial perfusion imaging.

Strontium-92 (25 d): Used as the 'parent' in a generator to produce Rb-82.

Thallium-201 (73 h): Used for diagnosis of coronary artery disease other heart conditions such as heart muscle death and for location of low-grade lymphomas.


in summary, is the medical use of radiation so terrible? well, it might be to the readers of this forum once they learn that bush 41, his lovely wife barbara, and their dog millie all had graves disease and had life-saving (well, maybe not the dog) radioisotope-based treatments (see http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/t41.htm ).

[not systems]

44. Simple apologetics for gross human rights abuse.

I posted the list because it contained the experiment I was
commenting on where retarded children were feed radioactive cereal.

You appear to admit as much "from the link you provide, there are one or two sub-links to situations where the mentally challenged were abused"

So what is the problem Mr treepig 1.0?

I made no comment on the "medical use of radiation" you did.

I commented on Mengele like experimentation done on human subject
who were incapable of providing consent and provided documentation
of such when ask to.

Let me summarize the treepig 1.0 algorithm.

If(post contains (radiation | chemical | biological) then Attack it.

This message brought to you by GE.

[treepig]

45. first, i agreed that experiments should not be done without

informed consent - but things were done differently back then and if care was taken not to harm the children (which was the case in this case) then i'm not sure just how warranted your complaint really are.

beyond that, your post veered into the nonsensical. your post that i originally replied to stated that "retarded children were fed radioactive cereal" - well, so what, all children are!! in fact, all food is radioactive, so being fed radioactive food is a rather mundane occurrence, hardly worth mentioning. therefore, i attempted to probe further why you'd bother raising this issue.

then, you posted a link to more specific information - most of which was totally irrelevant to the "retarded children" - but nevertheless provided a rationale for your previous point - namely, the testing of radioisotopes for biomedical purposes in humans. today, clearly informed consent would be a prerequisite for such studies, back when the "retarded children" studies were done the picture was a bit cloudier.

in the 1980's, i had the opportunity to discuss some of these experiments with an MIT researcher who fed radiolabeled amino acids to "retarded children" in the 1950s. in the 1980s, that was clearly unethical, so i asked him why he didn't just pay some grad students a modest fee to volunteer to be subjects in these studies. turns out he did that, but the students weren't the most reliable of subjects - for example, they tended to ingest other substances (alcohol for example) that would interfere with the experiments (both from a metabolic as well as from a behavioral standpoint). consequently, doing the experiments using the "retarded kids" who ate what they were given, and only what they were given, provided much more reliable results.

the bottom line is that the "retarded kids" and MIT students were both subjected to the same experimental protocols where they ate intentionally-radiolabeled food. furthermore, neither group was harmed (thereby making the mengele comparison just a bit over the top).

[not systems]

46. I continue to be unsurprised by your defense of the indefensible.

I have seen people who were feed plutonium interviewed
on TV perhaps on Frontline or 20/20 back in the early nineties.

I'm not going to continue to waste my time with you
because people were harmed and you are justifying it.

Frankly kiss my a**.

If you like radioactive cereal so much have two bowls.

[treepig]

47. according to your reasoning

all of modern medicine is based on "the indefensible"

i trust that you and your family take a principled stand and eschew all surgical and pharmacological intervention into disease

instead, i suppose you rely entirely on good fortune and completely untested (and therefore "defensible") Dietary and Herbal Supplements

see http://www.citizen.org/hrg/drugs/articles.cfm?ID=5195

to maintain your health?

good luck!!

[not systems]

49. Very non sequitur better debug or wait for TP 1.1 to be released.

I don't think retarded children should have been used
like lab rats so treepig 1.0 inferred I should...

"eschew all surgical and pharmacological intervention into disease"

and

"rely entirely on good fortune ... and Herbal Supplements"

buddy your a one note Charlie and a shilling clown.

[treepig]

51. since i'm having difficulty with stating this point

(or could it be your reading comprehension?), i'll say one more time that i completely agree that "retarded children" should not be used as lab rats.

what i do not agree with is your propensity to throw a bunch of unrelated bits and pieces of unrelated information into a hat, shake it up, and claim that resulting mishmash means anything.

for example, you mix together the "retarded children" and plutonium injection studies - they are completely separate.

plutonium was not injected into "retarded children" - as a explained above, these children were not harmed by the experiments performed on them (that does not make the experiments morally defensible, but on the other hand there is also no moral justification for you to spread lies about them either).

the plutonium injection experiments , needed to test the pharmacokinetic properties of this heavy metal due to it's patriotic and heroic use in the cold war weapons program, were done in 17 or 18 terminally ill patients. http://www.whale.to/b/plutonium.html

once again - i'm not claiming that these experiments are defensible. but they happened in the context of the cold war anti-commie hysteria (which, btw, also resulted in 15,000-20,000 deaths in the usa from radiation released from the nuclear weapons testing program - these people who had not signed informed consent agreements to be subject to exposure as it happened so perhaps that's an outrage many orders of magnitude greater than what you're currently concerned about?)

[not systems]

52. Mr Pig

My first message said:

---

Lot's of feeding radioactive food was done in the 50's
in the early nineties Clinton declassified documentation
that "doctors" had feed radioactive cereal to retarded
children.

No one said sorry.

No one cared.

Life magazine did a large photo spread on the Mengele like
experimentation that was done in the 50's and 60's.

---

I believe that this is factual except the statement
"Mengele like" which is subjective.

I stand by that statement.

The squid like obfuscating ink cloud you continue to spew
doesn't change my point that doctors and scientists have
committed acts that even you regretfully admit were unethical.

Go have another bowl of cereal.

[Lexingtonian]

5. It's not a secret

but it's not obvious exactly what to conclude from it. It's in every textbook about eugenics, 'sociobiology', and the like.

But if you look at e.g. the insane asylums of the time, i.e. before the first antipsychotics were discovered (that's 1951 and thorazine), this thing doesn't seem so unusual. The basic American take is: people were even more helpless to deal with psych problems then, it was a less civilized and poorer country, and in general everyone got more abused by their fellow Americans (personally, or as The System) at the time. And in comparison to European countries it was about the same as what they did.

The part of eugenics that is completely embarrassing is that the 'science' of it got started in the 1880s as part of the rising science of anthropology- a bunch of American scientists thought they could find explanations for why American whites, American blacks, and American Indians were such different kinds of people. This very rapidly degenerated into bad science and ideologically driven interpretations that human races (especially black Americans vs white Americans of the time) differ in average intelligence, the reason could be 'proven' to be genetic, etc.

The redemptive thing for American society is that a group of American biologist and other scientists got together and forced eugenics and eugeneticists out of the American scientific community around 1900 as indefensible doers of bad science (which they generally were), or as a kind of immoralist quack medicine (e.g. sterilizing seriously mentally ill people- very very few of whom ever have children anyway) at best.

Ironically, with amniocentesis and selected DNA testing and legal abortion there is a recent return of eugenics in the U.S. Very few infants are born with Down's Syndrome anymore or, I imagine, Turner Syndrome. By DNA genotyped mate selection and abortions Tay Sachs Disease has almost vanished. I imagine almost everyone who is a carrier of Huntington's Disease or the other polyglutamate neurodenerative diseases in the West is aborting all carrier foeti.

Worldwide that's small potatos, though, compared to the there amount of sex selection- selective abortion of one gender- and it's a phenomenon creating a pretty massive population gender disparity in India and China.

I'm in biomedicine and have had a lot of long conversations about how genetic diseases like schizophrenia are going to be made far more rare. And the conclusion of my colleagues- and my own- is that some mix of germline modification (basically, IVF with DNA injections and complicated selection of some derivative cells or embryos) and abortions is going to be what it takes to change schizophrenia rates substantially. (About 10% of the world's population carries gene defects that, generally individually of no effect, lead to schizophrenia when present in certain combinations.)

The sad thing is: schizophrenia represents maybe 5%, or less, of the medically impacting 'genetic mutation load' in the human species. From that perspective the early 20th century eugenicists were a wierd, naive, and crazy bunch who considered themselves relatively omniscient. Sort of a Bush Administration running their insane asylum...wow, that metaphor has something truly truly grotesque to it.

[mulethree]

21. wow an all male china, hadn't thought of that

with their policy of sterilization after having one child per couple,
and the strong cultural 'need' to have a son, I would guess that among chinese who can afford to, many are ensuring that their one child comes out a boy.

[wickerwoman]

42. It won't happen.

And the "One Child Policy" has changed so that couples can have two children if they are both only children themselves.

China is facing a gender gap in children born after 1980 but it will never become an all-male country. The government is recognizing the impact of depopulation on the economy and are already starting to readjust the policies.

[mmonk]

6. and what's scarey,

just recently a supreme court decision said that 14th ammendment rights don't apply to the learning disabled with regard to the states (discrimination case in Alabama).

[DarkSim]

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

have a read if you need more info.

[hadrons]

8. two books on the subject ....

War Against The Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ygx1w4Wfq6&isbn=1568582587&itm=1

and

Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of 'Defective' Babies in American Medicine and Motion Pictures since 1915

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ygx1w4Wfq6&isbn=0195135393&TXT=Y&itm=4

Clarence Darrow and Helen Keller had some good things to say about eugenics and there was a film on the subject called Black Stork (1917) that promoted eugenics

[mopaul]

9. prescott bush was into eugenics...he and his pal, hitler

it was very popular in the early 20th century.

[Wright Patman]

10. It is ironic

that his grandson is an inbred imbecile.

[hunter]

29. Do you think George and Barbara are secretly siblings?

That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

[GCP]

11. Here's a link for Prescott Bush and eugenics

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2412/eugenics/Bush.html

What a wonderful family

[suegeo]

48. The Coors Family

I think the Coors family of Colorado were (still are?) into Eugenics.This wasn't something they were into in the 1920s or 30s, this was like 20 years ago. There is a book about this icky family, if I find the name of the book I'll post it.

Now, we have a Coors running for Congress.

Sieg Heil.

(Also, the DuPonts into the same shit...)

[suegeo]

54. The book on the Fascist Coors Family is...

"The Coors Connection" by Russ Bellant.
Scary family!

[seemslikeadream]

12. The family that slays together stays together

n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. radioactive oatmeal? aka ReadyBrek in the UK

actual advertising image:

[seasat]

14. We understand so little still about genetics and the mind.

I wonder if some forms of mental illness and retardation may be the combinations of recessive genes that in normal combinations is beneficial. Sort of like sickle cell anemia is a beneficial recessive. By limiting the spread of those genes in the general population they may have limited a benefit. It could actually prevent another form of mental illness like believing in the conservative agenda. ;-)

[AP]

15. Even social democracy Sweeden had a eugenics program that lasted into

the 60s or 70s (IIIRC).

Yikes.

In high school I did a report on eugenics. When I started, I thought I wouldn't find much information on it, but once I got into it, I was amazed by how much good, critical writing there was on American eugenics. IIRC, Harvard was at the forefront of pushing it.

So it's not so much a secret, as it is something we don't remind ourselves about too regularly. But neither do the Swedes or anyone else.

Hopefully, this doesn't mean that this peculiar type of fascism will make a comeback. But I fear that's one of the consequences of not having an informed public discussion about it at regular intervals.

[TahitiNut]

16. State control of reproductive choice is essential to eugenics.

When any state jurisdiction whatsoever over the reproductive choices of adults is exercised, even to the extent that Roe v. Wade does so in the 2nd and 3rd trimester, we have taken a step closer to state-controlled eugenics.

If the government can legitimately prohibit an abortion, then it has a congruent sovereignty that permits it to require an abortion, imposing a state will over reproduction itself.

Lest anyone consider this some remote horror fiction, consider National Health Care and any fetus that poses an economic burden on the public - Downs syndrome, for example. Even people who proclaim themselves 'liberals' often rationalize intrusions on the civil liberties of others on the basis of some (often specious) cost to "society." Beware of any priesthood (self-annointed spokespersons) to something as ephemeral as "society."

[AngryAmish]

50. Isn't it funny that the founder of Planned Parenthood was a eugenicist?

Shows you how good things could come from bad people. Or how standards of good and bad change or time.

[wicket]

17. "Morons"

What's so sick is that people who were institutionalized in these "hospitals" and are still living, they still are considered "morons" on their permanent records, the moron label is still with them. So horrible :(

[Nashyra]

18. Wasn't there an article here on DU awhile back

that infered that the *41 was big into sterilization for the less fortunate against their will?

[jdj]

20. I've read that Planned Parenthood may have had

it's origins in some sort of eugenic type outlook. Margaret Sanger was said to be into this philosophy, but I don't know if I trust that and have been too lazy to research it further. I could just be right-wing tripe.

[mulethree]

26. yes - but is it different?

They're both population control. One might argue that PP is volentary and while eugenics is mandatory. But you could still argue that PP is targetted, and thus both are directed at lowering the birthrate amoung the "less fit".

[Roaming]

28. I've read this true, and I believe you are correct that Margaret

Sanger was enthusiastically into eugenics. Very creepy.

[kskiska]

19. Back in the 50s I knew of several members of one family

who had been sent to the Southbury Training School in Connecticut and were sterilized.

[shanti]

22. american racism

isn't much of a secret anymore, eh? it's still very prevalent, even though many will deny it vehemently.

[MisterP]

23. Stephen J. Gould's work, "The Mismeasure of Man,"

is excellent for the lead-up to the eugenics movement. Very revealing.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

25. One of the best book I ever read...also used to rebut

The Bell Curve.

[sangh0]

30. Eugenics became popular because of Eastern European immigrants

Around the turn of the century, immigration increased tremendously, with the majority of immigrants coming from Eastern and Southern Europe, as opposed to the Western Europeans that had emigrated before. This caused many people to worry about how well they would be assimilated, and eugenicists exploited those fears with a psuedo-scientific explanation of how those immigrants were feeble-minded with tendencies toward criminal behavior, due to their genetic heritage.

As some have noted, Margaret Sanger was in favor of eugenics. If you'd like to learn some o fthe other names, just look in the index of The Bell Curve. The book depends on their "science"

[classics]

31. Denying healthcare to the ill is a form of eugenics.

The practice of passive eugenics by America goes on to this day. We make it the hardest or even impossible to get healthcare for those that need it the most.

Those barriers result in death for the sickest in the population.

I doubt anyone is practicing aggressive eugenics or having 'fitness contests' to give prizes to the most 'pure' the way it was done here in the 1920s.

But black women, poor women and 'insane people' such as the fat, crippled and deformed (they were just called 'insane' then) were routinely force sterilized here in America as little as 50 years ago.

Many doctors continued to automatically sterilize these people without there permission long after it stopped (by removing ovaries/tying tubes during other procedures, giving birth, etc) though they were charged with 'misconduct' after being caught.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

34. IMHO, "eugenics" began to be practiced the day that the first slave...

...was sold in America.

[sangh0]

35. Neither of you understand what eugenics is

If the health care were denied because the patient's DNA indicated "febble-mindedness" or some other genetic defect, it would be eugenics.

And buying slaves has nothing to do with eugenics either.

The two of you ought to be ashamed for taking a serious subject and twisting it for your own personal agendas.

[drfemoe]

37. Is there a DNA marker for "feeble-mindedness"??

There certainly was no knowledge of that in the early 1900s. I really doubt that a genetic indication for "feeble-mindedness" exists.

The article mentions testing, but most assurededly it is not referring to DNA testing ..

<snip>
But author Michael D'Antonio says it wasn't just a movement. It was government policy. "People were told, we can be rid of all disease, we can lower the crime rate, we can increase the wealth of our nation, if we only keep certain people from having babies," says D’Antonio.

He says back then, schools tested children regularly, and those classified as feeble-minded got a one-way ticket to Fernald -- or to one of the more than 100 institutions like it.

"Idiot, imbecile, and moron were all medical terms. They were used to define various levels of retardation or disability. Moron was coined to describe children who were almost normal," says D’Antonio. "I would estimate that at least 50 percent would function in today’s world well."

Fred Boyce was just 8 years old in 1949 when his foster mother died, and the State of Massachusetts committed him to Fernald.
<end snip>
http://truthout.org/docs_04/050404C.shtml

[gottaB]

38. Which is scarrier

That The Bell Curve sold half a million copies?

That Murray and Herrnstein were both educated men?

That Murray and Herrnstein were educators?

More debunking:

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-bellcurvescience.htm

[Vitruvius]

33. "Eugenics" was conceived as a nice-sounding name for genocide --

the ruling class removing genes that it doesn't like from the population. Sometimes by extermination, sometimes by sterilization.

And the Nazis who ran the Holocaust drew their original intellectual inspiration from the American eugenics movement -- which came first. And they murdered not only Jews, but Slavs, Gypsies, and the handicapped as well. And "eugenics" was just the pseudo-scientific rationalization needed to allow the Nazis to commit mass murder without thinking of themselves as mass murderers.

And most of the Nazis who did it got away with it; we executed a few of the top Nazis for show, but let the rest go. We have a bigoted racist old-money ruling class that thinks it has the right to decide who deserves to live and die, who should be allowed to reproduce, etc; the Bu$h family -- which did business with the Nazis and profited from Auschwitz slave labor -- is only one of many of its' kind.

Vitruvius

P.S: The "eugenics" movement was an outgrowth of the 19th-century "Social Darwinism" movement -- which said that working people to death in sweatshops and exterminating Native Americans was all to the good because it improved the human race by removing "inferior" elements.

Before that, there were the numerous rationalizations used to justify slavery. And many old-money families that began as slave traders (like the Bu$hes and the Pierces) or slave drivers (like the Walkers) later supported Social Darwinism, then Eugenics, then Republicanism. And now you know where George Herbert Walker Bu$h, his wife (nee Barbara Pierce) and their son Dubya came from.

"Eugenics" was just one chapter in a deeply ingrained American ruling-class racism; a racism that says that it's OK for some people to exploit and kill other people.

[DoNotRefill]

39. It's gotten press

they continued to forcibly sterilize "undesireables" until the 1970's here.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said "Three generations of idiots is enough" or something along those lines.

The Nazis weren't real big on originality. They copied the American Eugenics movement. Their "strong point" was efficiency...while America sterilized "undesireables" in dribs and drabs, they did it wholesale.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

40. Fernald? Fernald, Ohio?

what?

[0007]

53. Excellent post dArKeR

Let's remind the world once again of the Mississippi Syphilis Experiments on the blacks." And then tried to cover it up when exposed.

http://www.msu.edu/user/stocks/prof/ethics/tuskg.html