Carrie Buck's pedigree

Abstract

EUGENICS The field of eugenics had its origins in the early genetic theories of Gregor Mendel and the studies of biometrics pioneered by British aristocrat Francis Galton. Galton was first to coin the term eugenics, which he defined as “hereditarily endowed with noble qualities” or more simply “well-born.” Galton focused both on positive inheritance—that is, encouraging people of “good breeding” to marry—as well negative eugenics, which placed barriers to childbirth in the way of individuals with suspect heredity. Galton’s most fervent American followers emphasized the negative features of eugenics. Identifying heredity as the determinant of a person’s physical, social, intellectual, and moral attributes, they advocated social policies to discourage or prevent the poor and people with disabilities, ill health, or intellectual limitations from marrying or bearing children. The American epicenter of the eugenics movement was the ERO at Cold Spring Harbor, NY, established by biologist Charles Davenport in 1910 to conduct family studies and publish research findings in the Galtonian tradition. Publications such as the Eugenics Record Office Bulletin disseminated the eugenics ideology. The first Eugenics Record Office Bulletin was an essay by famous psychologist and student of mental health Henry Goddard and was titled “The Heredity of Feeblemindedness.”2 Goddard analyzed 15 pedigree charts used to demonstrate hereditary transmission of mental pathology. Davenport himself authored other Bulletins, such the “Trait Book,”3 an extensive elaboration of personal characteristics purportedly controlled by heredity. The “Trait Book” described behaviors such as laziness, criminality, and a susceptibility to certain diseases, alongside “propensities” to follow the vocation of sailor, lawyer, or physician—also thought to be hereditary traits. Davenport also compiled “the Family History Book,” a primer on charting the inheritance of Carrie Buck’s pedigree