From pancreatic extracts to artificial pancreas: history, science and controversies about the discovery of the pancreatic antidiabetic hormone: VI: Nicolae C. Paulescu: light and darkness

Abstract

463 Race and eugenics in inter-war Romania Social Darwinism is a term introduced for various late-nineteenth century ideologies which exploited ideas of “survival of the fi ttest”. It is also associated with ideas of struggle between national or racial groups. The theory was chiefl y exploited by Herbert Spencer who adapted Darwinian ideas to his own ethical theories. He argued that it was natural, normal and proper, for the strong to thrive at the expense of the weak. The fi rst use of Social Darwinism was in Joseph Fisher’s 1877 article on “The history of landholding in Ireland”, published in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Some extreme Social Darwinists claim that it is morally incorrect to assist those weaker than one self, since that would be promoting the survival and possible reproduction of someone who is fundamentally unfi t. Many negative reactions to Darwinism come from the confusion of Darwinism as a scientifi c theory, describing a range of concepts of evolutionism or development, with Social Darwinism as an ethical theory. In reality, the two have very little in common. Main notable fi gures of Social Darwinism, in addition to Spencer, have been Thomas Malthus and Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics. The word eugenics was coined in 1883 by the English scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, to promote the ideal of perfecting the human race by encouraging the procreation of the social Darwinian fi t and discouraging that of the unfi t. In Galton’s own words, “perfecting the human race by getting rid of its ‘undesirables’ while multiplying its ‘desirables’”. As a social movement, eugenics was widely popular in the early decades of the 20 century. By the end of World War II, eugenics had been largely abandoned. Eugenics was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, infl uential institutions and individuals. Eugenics was supported by Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Sanger, H.G. Wells, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes, John Harvey Kellogg, and Linus Pauling, among many others. Eugenics became an academic discipline at universities. Three International Eugenics Conferences were held in 1912 (London), 1921 and 1932 (New York). G.K. Chesterton was an early critic of eugenics in his book “Eugenics and Other Evils”. The scientifi c reputation of eugenics declined in the 1930s when Ernst Historical Perspective