Although eugenics is sometimes regarded as a perversion of Darwinian biology, Charles Darwin himself praised the idea of voluntary eugenic restrictions on marriage in The Descent of Man . . ., and his sons George and Leonard actively promoted the eugenics agenda, with Leonard becoming the president of the Eugenics Education Society, the main eugenics group in Great Britain.
But it was Darwin's cousin Francis Galton who is justly considered the founder of the modern eugenics crusade. Inspired by The Origin of the Species, Galton set about to apply his cousin Charles' theory to the rise of human genius. After researching the family connections of members of the British elite, Galton announced in articles and then in books that intellectual and artistic talent was largely hereditary. Thus, if society wanted to guarantee its future improvement, it needed more children from the "fit" and fewer from the "unfit." By the 1880s, Galton had coined the term eugenics (adapted from a Greek root meaning "good in birth") and was urging efforts to improve the race through better breeding.
While Galton stressed the need for positive eugenics (in order to cultivate the geniuses needed for society to thrive and progress), he also favored negative eugenic measures and thought that those deemed unfit could be segregated in institutions where they would not be allowed to reproduce.
John G. West, "Darwin Day in America: How our politics and culture have been dehumanized in the name of science," p.86-87
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