Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

DOLAN DNA LEARNING CENTER, COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY

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Eugenics Archive Blog

Designer Babies and Fitter Families

So-called “designer babies” have generated fervent discussion in recent weeks, sparked by the latest online dating trend: a sperm and egg bank with the goal to make beautiful people. For some, genetic manipulation is a moral necessity, for others it is an ethical outrage. We are reminded of the eugenics movement. “Better Babies” contests, originally [...]

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Examine the Chronicle of how society dealt with mental illness and other "dysgenic" traits in the final section of our website DNA Interactive. Meet four individuals who became objects of the eugenic movement's zeal to cleanse society of "bad" genes during the first half of the 20th century. Then meet a modern-day heroine for an account of mental illness and the lesson it holds for living in the gene age.