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The peace of the world is challenged by societal confrontations that can often be labeled "racial" or "ethnic." Emblematic of this is discrimination based on skin colour. William Bateson's background suggests sympathy with the black emancipation movement. Yet the movement's success is attributed more to battles between political figures than between scientists with contending views on the biology of racial differences. However, in the long term, Bateson's contributions to slavery and eugenic issues may be seen as no less important than those of politicians. Mendel's discovery of what we now know as "genes" languished until seized upon by Bateson in 1900. For six exhausting years he struggled to win scientific acceptance of these biological character-determining units. Later, he pressed the Mendelian message home to the general public, opposing simplistic applications of Mendelian principles to human affairs, and arguing that minor genic differences that distinguished "races" - e.g. skin colour - do not initiate new species. Bateson praised the "physiological selection" speciation hypothesis of Darwin's young research associate, George Romanes. This enthusiasm was rekindled by Robert Lock and formulated in modern terms with C. R. Crowther. Thus, the spark that initiates a divergence into two species can be non-genic. This normal form of hybrid sterility, based on genome-wide DNA sequence differences, operates on, but has not succeeded in dividing, the human species. It should not be labeled "idiopathic," and be clearly distinguished both from pathological sterility and undiagnosed sterilities that may prove to be pathological. We are one reproductively isolated population, the human species., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The author declares no unethical interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

The paper aims to understand the various legacies of eugenics in the postwar period to recognize both the continuities and discontinuities of eugenics with an approach which is both conceptually sound and historically correct. Building on earlier work of Lene Koch, the paper endeavours to chart the historical trajectory of eugenics by examining how its definition and those of its related or oppositional concepts have evolved within selected lexicon entries across various stages of the century. The inclusion and publication of a concept within a lexicon indicate its significance, linguistic vitality, and prevalence in public discourse. These entries serve as a window into the contemporary understanding and application of concepts over an entire century, offering insights into the practices of eugenics as interpreted by the authoritative scholars of the era. Additionally, these lexicon entries offer more than just a mirror to the past's prevailing attitudes. The very act of articulating a concept may be viewed as a pivotal element in social struggles, influencing the course of eugenic practices and their interpretations. Both conceptual history and discourse analysis share common ground in their perception of concepts, considering the use of language as a social activity endowed with performative capabilities. They recognize that language does not merely reflect reality but can actively shape it, playing a significant role in societal dynamics and power relations. The Hungarian lexicon entries on eugenics reveal notable disparities in the identified content, the periodization, and the evolution of changes when compared to Lene Koch's earlier study on Scandinavian eugenics. In Hungary, the concept of eugenics underwent significant changes over four successive periods. The history and interpretation of eugenics can vary significantly from one country to another. Different nations have had their unique experiences and trajectories with the eugenics movement, which have been shaped by their specific cultural, political, and social contexts. These variations emphasize the importance of considering the localized and historical perspectives when examining the concept of eugenics., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This essay examines the portrayal of modern Black motherhood in Nella Larsen's Harlem Renaissance novel, Quicksand (1928). Writing in a cultural landscape dominated by discourses of racial uplift, scientific motherhood and eugenics, I argue that Larsen critiques and ultimately refuses the limited literary, medical and political terms available for representing Black motherhood in the early twentieth century. My readings centre Larsen's understudied career as a nurse; prior to becoming a writer, Larsen worked as Head Nurse at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and as a public health nurse for the Department of Health in the Bronx. I consider how this professional experience informed her fictional depiction of modern Black motherhood, drawing on archival materials to demonstrate how her novel complicates contemporaneous medical and cultural attitudes towards Black motherhood and resists the eugenic demands delineating what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' motherhood. Engaging contemporary Black feminist theories of refusal and Black motherhood, I show how Quicksand is not only a critique of racist stigmatising discourses and practices but also of how racism limits the ways in which Black mothers' complexity has historically been represented., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

In the early twentieth century, childbirth was increasingly being viewed as a medical experience in North America. Women were encouraged to engage with 'scientific motherhood' by adhering to medical advice and undergoing the latest medical and technological interventions. Two movements simultaneously emerged that engaged with scientific motherhood: the positive eugenics movement, which sought to encourage reproduction among specific groups, and the twilight sleep movement, which promoted the use of pain management during childbirth. While these two distinct movements had different goals, they intersected both in their intended audiences (white, middle-class and upper-class American women) and in their prioritisation of medical and scientific authority. This article builds on work that has identified connections between twilight sleep and the eugenics movement to consider the role of twentieth-century magazines in rhetorically linking the eugenics and twilight sleep movements, and how this contributed to constructing the cultural role of the 'scientific mother'.As a key proponent of twilight sleep, the American monthly periodical McClure's Magazine is the focus of this investigation. Articles published in McClure's incorporated the rhetoric of the eugenics movement to promote twilight sleep and 'painless childbirth', while also engaging with concerns of the eugenics movement by framing the falling birthrate among American women as a social and political problem. Alongside the rhetorical framing within McClure's articles, we focus on visual material such as photographs that exhibit 'eugenic mothers' and healthy 'twilight sleep babies' to promote the method's safety and efficacy to American audiences. This article incorporates scholarship on early twentieth-century eugenics and photography, women's involvement in the eugenics movement, and twilight sleep and the politics of women's health. Through its analysis, this article demonstrates that the convergence of developments in obstetrics and the eugenics movement in popular media had complex implications for women's reproductive agency in the early twentieth century., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

The category of psychopathy has a long history, and its meaning has undergone a notable evolution since its conception in the 19th century. The history of psychopathy has been concentrating mainly on English- and German-speaking psychopathology. This article investigates definitions of psychopathy, its classification, and social issues associated with this category in Polish psychiatry in the interwar period. Polish definitions of psychopathy were influenced predominantly by Ernst Kretschmer's constitutional theory as well as by Eugen Kahn's, William Stern's, and Kurt Schneider's ideas. The term was generally understood as a borderline category denoting states between health and mental illness. As those states could manifest differently, it was thought to be many psychopathies. Two Polish psychiatrists, Maurycy Bornsztajn and Jakub Frostig, presented comprehensive classifications of psychopathies. Social issues associated with the category of psychopathy concentrated on three topics: psychopathy in children as a problem of the prevention of mental disorders; psychopathy as a problem of the justice system, the penitentiary, and military systems; and psychopathy as an issue of eugenics and social usefulness. Polish psychiatrists highlighted the need for the development of national institutions for the care of psychopathic children. Issues of accountability and insanity of psychopaths from the point of view of forensic psychiatry were also discussed. In conclusion, psychopathy in interwar Polish psychiatry was not just one of the personality disorders-it denoted the whole spectrum of characterological disturbances; thus, it rather corresponds to the modern category of personality disorders than to the contemporary understanding of psychopathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

In this article, we follow the trails of 20th-century psychologist Henry Herbert Goddard's influential study of the Kallikak family. Goddard's study is treated as a scientific story with two interlocking dimensions: One is the actual story of the Kallikak family, with literary elements such as setting, plot, and characters. The other dimension is the broader eugenic discourse, a powerful scientific narrative that calls for action in relation to society and the population. The purpose of the article is twofold. Firstly, to analyze the forming and articulations of this story and to explore some of the consequences for governing the population that it has made possible. Secondly, to explore some aspects of what a Foucauldian analytics of government can contribute with in relation to Goddard's work and the eugenic discourse from the early 20th century to today. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Highlighting the Distinguished Speakers Symposium on "The Future of Human Genetics and Genomics," this collection of articles is based on presentations at the ASHG 2023 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, in celebration of all our field has accomplished in the past 75 years, since the founding of ASHG in 1948., (Copyright © 2024.)

This article analyzes the speeches of leading doctors in the creation of the specialty in childbirth care: gynecotology. Between 1920 and 1940, under the influence of eugenic and maternalist thinking, in a context of valuing the well-being of children, medicine built a new obstetric interventionism under the foundation of improving fetal viability. The supposed female "maternal instinct" was, thus, appealed to improve acceptance of the medical mandate. At the same time, doctors recognized their difficulties in providing adequate care. They did not wait long enough and tended to intervene in unnecessary physiological processes.

It is widely recognized that Emil Kraepelin explicitly advocated for eugenic ideas in his academic works. Given the renewed interest in related concepts such as self-domestication and neo-Lamarckism in different contexts, this article revisits his eugenic arguments by scrutinizing a section of his seminal work, the 8th edition of his textbook published in 1909. Our analysis reveals that Kraepelin's arguments consisted of multiple theories and ideas prevalent at the time (i.e. self-domestication hypothesis, neo-Lamarckism, degeneration theory, social Darwinism, racism and ethnic nationalism), each of which presented individual fundamental claims. Nevertheless, Kraepelin amalgamated them into one combined narrative, which crystallized into an anti-humanistic psychiatry in the next generation. This paper cautions that a similar 'packaging of ideas' might be emerging now., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This text analyzes female participation in Brazilian eugenics and medical discourse on the roles and social functions of the sexes during the first half of the twentieth century. In examining the production of two women, Ítala Silva de Oliveira and Eunice Penna Kehl, we maintain that certain women were effectively engaged in the eugenics movement and worked to bring women closer to eugenics. This analysis makes it possible to explore a pedagogical dimension of eugenics and of the popularization of this movement by attempting to form a hygienist and eugenist consciousness among women.

Through the late-twentieth century, physicians endorsed the denial of life-saving surgeries to infants because they had Down syndrome. Grim physician assessments of the inevitable burden of Down syndrome found ideological footing in the 1970s crusade to eradicate the condition, a public health goal made possible by new genetic diagnostics and a weakened abortion law. What is most striking about this physician-sanctioned passive euthanasia is that it persisted even in an era of unprecedented expansion of disability rights. Physician endorsement of the euthanasia of infants with Down syndrome offers a powerful corrective to the notion that post-war Canada was marked by waning support for eugenics. Medically sanctioned euthanasia of babies because of their Down syndrome, eugenics of the most extreme type, thrived in late-twentieth century Canada.

In 1936, Bruno Schulz published the first detailed, book-length review of the methodology of psychiatric genetic research, based on his experiences at the German Research Institute of Psychiatry. Emphasis is placed on proper selection of relatives and the ascertainment corrections required for Mendelian transmission models. Twin studies are considered as is the impact of reduced fertility on patterns of risk. For the field work, Schulz emphasizes the importance of trust-building, confidentiality, collateral informants, and the use of medical and other administrative records, all ideally stored in personal files. Several methods of age-correction are reviewed. Schulz provides detailed algebraic treatments of these and other problems, including tests for etiologic homogeneity, with worked examples. He emphasizes two fundamental concerns in psychiatric genetics research: (i) its inter-dependency with the optimal diagnostic boundaries, which are rarely known and (ii) the genetic homogeneity of clinical samples. Given these problems, he is pessimistic about finding Mendelian transmission patterns. He assesses the predominant 19th-century method of psychiatric genetic investigation-"hereditary burden"-to be crude and biased by family size. Although written at a time of consolidation of Nazi power in Germany, this book nowhere endorses their racial/eugenic policies and can be seen as subtly questioning them., (© 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The case of the Juke family is one of the most notable episodes of the history of eugenics in the USA. The Jukes were initially brought to the fore in the 1870s by a famous investigation that aimed at estimating the interplay of heredity and environment in determining the problems of poverty and crime. This inquiry triggered a harsh confrontation between two polar interpretations of the study, an "environmentalist" one and a "hereditarian" one. It was with the later reassessment of the case made by the Eugenics American Office (ERO) in the 1910s that the controversy was considered closed with the victory of the eugenicists' hereditarian stance. As a result, the family was made a living proof of the alleged hereditary nature of crime and pauperism and a case study in support of the eugenicists' plea for the sterilization of people deemed the bearers of hereditary defectiveness. In this article, I explore the role played by pedigrees and other diagrammatic representations in the eugenicists' appropriation of the meaning of the case of the Juke family and the role played by this appropriation in asserting the superiority of the ERO's method of work over rival approaches., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This paper offers the term "eugenic maternalism" to conceptualize how eugenic thought and practice was disseminated through Progressive Era materialist reform work. Focusing on the Better Babies Contests hosted by the New York City Babies Welfare Association from 1913 to 1916, I argue that the BWA Better Babies Contest provides an opportunity to broaden our understanding of the ways eugenic logic permeated maternalist discussions of child welfare. The contests incentivized mothers and children to participate in educational programming at local community centers, enlisting families in the project of assimilation. Within these spaces, eugenics operated as a reciprocal process of environmental reform, negotiated between reformers and immigrant women. Both participants and organizers acted within a eugenic framework in which their ability to control the environment would determine their future hereditary potential and capacity for citizenship.

Over the second half of the nineteenth century, thousands of Americans were admitted to schools for so-called idiotic children, later known as institutions for the feebleminded and linked to the Eugenics movement. While idiocy is often presumed to be the antecedent of intellectual disability, an analysis of the stories of three hundred children admitted to one such institution over a forty-year period demonstrates an unexpected diversity of appearances, abilities, and behaviors. Within the walls of the institution, idiocy was composed of children whose perceived abilities deviated from the expectations of their social position. Families further shaped the diagnosis of idiocy by negotiating the timing of admission for their children, influenced not only by personal factors, but by shifting educational and employment opportunities, and cultural tolerance of diversity. Consequently, idiocy became the broadest descriptor of disability during the nineteenth century.

A recent report by G. Clark points to a sustained persistence of social status in England that extends vertically across several generations and horizontally across many levels of kinship. We seek to put his findings in historical perspective. We do so by relating them to two lines of thinking related to biological inheritance. One predated the rediscovery of Mendel's work and led to the field of quantitative genetics, which dealt on the whole with quasi-continuously varying traits. The other is based on the rediscovery itself and led to a reconciliation between quantitative genetics and discrete Mendelian elements of heredity. Both were enmeshed with the supposed need for, and societal consequences of, eugenics and assortative mating. Also on both issues, the significant ideas can be traced to R. A. Fisher, inspired in one case by F. Galton and in the other by J. A. Cobb, with strong support for Galton and Cobb coming from Karl Pearson. Clark's findings point to societal stratification, and assortative mating for wealth is a straightforward hypothesis to account for it. However, it should be noted that the findings support, but do not prove, the hypothesis.

Background: Research has documented how ideas about race, class, ethnicity, ableism, and structural hierarchies determine health outcomes and disparities today. The historical role of nursing practice and education needs further exploration., Purpose: This study aims to better understand how some nurses thought about and interacted with eugenics in the early 20th century., Methods: Historical analysis of primary and secondary sources., Discussion: In the early 20th century, reformers of the day, including some nurses, demonstrated much ambiguity of thinking as they pushed for eugenic improvement of the "human race" while also enhancing environmental changes, such as good nutrition and clean, safe housing., Conclusion: Nursing's past relationship with eugenics sheds light on the history and construction of the system leading to health disparities among marginalized groups. Nurses must acknowledge the historical roots and context of their education and practice as we engage in critical conversations about social inequities., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article analyzes the ruptures from and continuations of eugenicist ideology in the work of Salvador de Toledo Piza Jr., a geneticist and professor at the Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz." Documentary research involving articles, correspondence, and notes from this former director of the Boletim de Eugenia investigates the reshaping of eugenics in the post-1945 context, a time when Piza Jr. began to publicize evolutionism. While Piza Jr. stopped publicly defending eugenics in latter half of the twentieth century, he maintained his racialized notions into the 1950s, corresponded with eugenicist groups in the 1960s, and supported a hierarchical interpretation of human evolution until the late 1980s.

In the present article we briefly discuss the historical premises of eugenics. Differences and some analogies between the Latin and the German way of eugenics in the 20th century are presented, until the tragic antisemitic turn. The fate of some children in the South Tyrol border region is also discussed, as well as the role of several anatomo-pathologists as willing executors of autopsies on the victims of the eugenic project of eliminating mentally and physically disabled people., (Copyright © 2023 Società Italiana di Anatomia Patologica e Citopatologia Diagnostica, Divisione Italiana della International Academy of Pathology.)

This article provides an overwiew of the history of the "Hilfsverein für Geisteskranke" in the Kingdom of Saxony (later Free State of Saxony) from its foundation in 1898 until its probable dissolution during World War II. The "Hilfsverein" was a philantropic organization that aimed to provide support for the mentally ill and their relatives through financial aid and education. It relied on a network of representatives spanning all of Saxony´s regions. Its work continued during the Weimar Republic after World War I, though by then it had lost influence due to economic loss and other structures of public welfare being established. In the context of the rise in eugenic and social darwinist tendencies during the 1920s, the implications of "racial hygiene" and hereditability came to be discussed among its members. After the takeover of the National Socialist Party in 1933, the "Hilfsverein" was forcibly assimilated into the Nazi welfare system and used to propagate racial ideology., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

The University of Minnesota has played an important role in the resurgence and eventual mainstreaming of human behavioral genetics in psychology and psychiatry. We describe this history in the context of three major movements in behavioral genetics: (1) radical eugenics in the early 20th century, (2) resurgence of human behavioral genetics in the 1960s, largely using twin and adoption designs to obtain more precise estimates of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in behavior; and (3) use of measured genotypes to understand behavior. University of Minnesota scientists made significant contributions especially in (2) and (3) in the domains of cognitive ability, drug abuse and mental health, and endophenotypes. These contributions are illustrated through a historical perspective of major figures and events in behavioral genetics.

Reproductive genetic carrier screening (RCS), when offered to anyone regardless of their family history or ancestry, has been subject to the critique that it is a form of eugenics. Eugenics describes a range of practices that seek to use the science of heredity to improve the genetic composition of a population group. The term is associated with a range of unethical programmes that were taken up in various countries during the 20th century. Contemporary practice in medical genetics has, understandably, distanced itself from such programmes. However, as RCS becomes more widespread, gains public funding and uses expanded gene panels, there are concerns that such programmes could be perceived as eugenic either in intent or outcome. The typical response to the eugenics critique of RCS is to emphasise the voluntary nature of both participating in screening and making subsequent reproductive choices. While safeguarding individuals' freedom to choose in relation to screening is essential, we consider this response inadequate. By examining the specific ethical wrongs committed by eugenics in the past, we argue that to avoid the perception of RCS being a form of eugenics it is essential to attend to the broader normative context in which reproductive decisions occur. Furthermore, ethical RCS programmes must recognise and respond to their potential to shift societal norms that shape individual reproductive choices., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

This essay examines the theory of maternal impressions, the belief that a woman's experiences or emotions during pregnancy could explain congenital disability or emotional/ behavior differences in her child and asks why this theory circulated as an explanation for disability seen at birth by both medical doctors and in literature for far longer than it did across the Atlantic. By presenting examples from nineteenth-century medical literature, popular fiction, maternal handbooks, and two canonical works of literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave, I argue that maternal impressions worked to maintain anxiety for women, and particular white women, to ensure they felt responsible if anything was "wrong" with their child. Ultimately, I show how maternal impressions was both an ableist and racialized understanding of inheritance that wouldn't be discarded until the emergence of eugenics in the early twentieth century., (© 2020. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Early 20th century eugenicists propagated a system of ideas, values and dispositions that constituted adults with intellectual disability as the antithesis of the paradigmatic citizen, and a biological threat to society. The eugenic schema was encoded in sex-segregated institutionalization and, in many places, forced sterilization. These eugenic practices are no longer sanctioned. However, eugenic practices did not disappear. In this paper we argue that the eugenic schema is now encoded and purveyed through a multiplicity of social arrangements and practices that deny adults with intellectual disability the respect, opportunity and means necessary to participate on a par with others in social life. Such practices include, for example, covert or coerced contraception, and discriminatory child welfare interventions leading to high rates of custody deprivation. Drawing on relational theory, we problematize normative assumptions of embodiment and citizenship, which give rise to attributions of incapacity, and argue that adults with intellectual disability need what all other adults need to make and effect choices concerning their sexuality, relationships and parenthood, i.e., recognition, opportunity and support., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Scholars such as Nancy Leys Stepan, Alexandra Minna Stern, Marius Turda and Aaron Gillette have all argued that the rejection of coerced sterilization was a defining feature of "Latin" eugenic theory and practice. These studies highlight the influence of neo-Lamarckism in this development not only in Latin America but also in parts of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. This article builds upon this historiographical framework to examine an often-neglected site of Latin American eugenic knowledge production: Chile. By focusing on Chilean eugenicists' understandings of environment and coerced sterilization, this article argues that there was no uniquely Latin objection to the practice initially. In fact, Chilean eugenicists echoed concerns of eugenicists from a variety of locations, both "mainstream" and Latin, who felt that sterilization was not the most effective way to ensure the eugenic improvement of national populations. Instead, the article contends that it was not until the implementation of the 1933 German racial purity laws, which included coerced sterilization legislation, that Chilean eugenicists began to define their objections to the practice as explicitly Latin. Using a variety of medical texts which appeared in popular periodicals as well as professional journals, this article reveals the complexity of eugenic thought and practice in Chile in the early twentieth century.

Dr. Caleb Williams Saleeby was the author of Parenthood and Race Culture, one of the first monographs on eugenics and the book that popularized the term "racial poison." The goal of eradicating the racial poisons and the harm they caused - particularly infant morbidity and mortality - provided common ground for early 20th century reformers, and their concerns fed the growing support for legal prohibition of alcohol.

Special Issue: Race reconciled II: Interpreting and communicating biological variation and race in 2021 Francis Galton and Karl Pearson., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: The founders of Hereditas envisioned that race biology would be a major subject that had social applications with utmost importance in the near future. Anthropometrics was in this context understood to be the pure and eugenics the applied science. Sweden had a long tradition in physical anthropometry. Herman Lundborg, member of the advisory board of Hereditas, united the anthropometric and eugenic approaches in a synthesis. He was the first head of the Institute for Race Biology in Sweden. The contents of Hereditas reflect the development of race biology in the Nordic countries., Conclusions: The initial enthusiasm for applied race biology did not last long. In the 1920's Hereditas carried papers on both physical anthropology and eugenics. Most paper dealt, however, with human genetics without eugenic content. Two papers, published in 1921 and 1939 show how the intellectual climate had changed from positive to negative. Finally only human genetics prevailed as the legitimate study of the human race or humankind. A belated defense of eugenics published in 1951 did not help; geneticists had abandoned anthropometrics for good around the year 1940 and eugenics about a decade later. In spite of that, eugenic legislation was amended astonishingly late, in the 1970's. The development was essentially similar in all Nordic countries.

The Greek biopolitics of reproduction during the post-war period was determined by the demographic figures. Instead of a rise in births, Greece experienced a constant downward trajectory of the birth rate throughout the second half of the twentieth century. The country also witnessed population instability due to the massive immigration in the 1960s and the wave of repatriation in the next decade. The article explores the state's biopolitics in order to achieve demographic equilibrium by adopting a pronatalist perspective. The construction of biopolitics was influenced by the consecutive wars of the first half of the century resulting in the denial of any means suspected of reducing the birth rate, such as contraception and abortion. In parallel, the article investigates the attempts of a group of eugenicists to impose to the state authorities their own views on reproduction control. The key debates were birth control and abortion because these issues of reproduction were entangled with major social fermentations caused by urbanization, modernization, eugenics, and feminism. The Constitution of 1974 was instrumental in changing the biopolitics of reproduction by introducing equal rights to men and women. It provoked a series of legal transformations with regard to marriage, family, and reproduction., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: In 1936, the American Neurological Association (ANA) published the book "Eugenical Sterilization: A Reorientation of the Problem" in response to what the first author of the book described as a positive reception to a paper presented at the ANA's 1935 annual meeting. The conclusions of the presentation were approved by the organization during the same meeting. As evidenced by the publication of several book reviews in a variety of medical journals, the book garnered some attention., Methods: Reviews of the ANA's book were sought using PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embasa. Also, the book's title was used to search the World Wide Web., Results: The search yielded four reviews, all published in 1937. The reviews make evident a positive opinion of the ANA's book's authors' recommendations including the option for "selective sterilization" of patients with conditions such as Huntington disease, Friedreich ataxia, and epilepsy. In addition, reviewers highlighted the book's authors' assessment that "the feebleminded [breed] docile, servile, useful people who do the dirty work of the race, [as] servants fulfilling a social function.", Conclusions: Although the book's authors did not advocate for all-out eugenical sterilization, they did little to counter the popular opinion that patients with certain neurological diseases were a drain on society. In addition, they espoused a positive vision of the feebleminded's role as servants who can do undesirable work. This message was disseminated through book reviews., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885-1964) is an internationally known Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology. During the time of National Socialism (1933-1945), he worked in the Charite University Hospital Berlin and moved to Kiel University as Head of the Department for Psychiatry and Neurology in 1938. Until the turn of the millennium, Creutzfeldt was considered to be of moral integrity and an opponent of the Nazi regime and its eugenics measures. Publications of the last years came to the conclusion that this depiction does not hold up. They questioned his relations to the ideas and structures of the National Socialist system, his role as a consultant in the National Socialist's forced sterilization program, a possible involvement in the Nazi euthanasia measures, and his position as a psychiatric consultant for the German navy. The article considers 2 aspects concerning the National Socialist racial hygiene in greater detail by using newly found source material. It is shown that Creutzfeldt, although he did not actively resist, was not acting in the interest of the Nazi regime, but rather was trying to save as much patients as possible by changing their diagnoses and prevent them from being killed in the euthanasia program., (© 2020 American Academy of Neurology.)

In 1917, Eugen Bleuler published an article (Mendelismus bei Psychosen, speziell bei der Schizophrenie [Mendelism in the Psychoses, especially Schizophrenia]) in response to the recently published first systematic family study of dementia praecox (DP) by Ernst Rüdin, then working under Kraepelin in Munich. Although briefly commented upon by David Rosenthal in 1978, this article has never been thoroughly reviewed or translated. Of the many themes addressed, four are especially noteworthy. First, Bleuler argues that understanding the transmission patterns of schizophrenia in families requires definitive knowledge about the boundaries of the phenotype which he argues are unknown. Rüdin's choice-Kraepelin's concept of DP-is, he asserts, too narrow. Clarifying the genetics of schizophrenia is inextricably bound up with the problem of defining the phenotype. Second, Bleuler argues for the importance of "erbschizose" (literally "inherited schizoidia") wondering whether his "4 As" or other "brain-anatomical, chemical, [or] neurological characteristics" might underlie the genetic transmission of schizophrenia. Third, Bleuler was deeply interested in the nature of the onset of schizophrenia, suggesting that environmental adversity could provoke "latent illness to become manifest." It was important, he argued, to identify such risk factors and incorporate them into genetic models. Fourth, although not optimistic that current knowledge would permit a resolution of the transmission model for schizophrenia, he finds single-locus models implausible and at several points wonders whether polygenic models might better apply. A complete translation of the article is provided., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Recent allegations that pediatrician Hans Asperger legitimized Nazi policies, including forced sterilization and child euthanasia, are refuted with newly translated and chronologically-ordered information that takes into account Hitler's deceptive 'halt' to the T4 euthanasia program in 1941. It is highly unlikely that Asperger was aware of the T4 program when he referred Herta Schreiber to Am Spiegelgrund or when he mentioned that institution 4 months later on the medical chart of another (unrelated) girl, Elisabeth Schreiber. Asperger campaigned vigorously from 1938 to 1943 to have his specialization, Curative Education, take priority in the diagnosis and treatment of disabled children over other fields that promoted Nazi racial hygiene policies. He neither disparaged his patients nor was he sexist. By 1938, he had identified the essentials of Asperger syndrome and described an unnamed boy whom he later profiled (as Ernst K.) in 1944. Rather than doing 'thin' research, Asperger made discoveries that were prescient, and some of his activities conformed to definitions of "individual resistance."

This article problematizes gender relations during the first Brazilian Eugenics Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1929. Seen as the largest public manifestation of the eugenics movement in Brazil, the Atas e Trabalhos do Congresso (Conference Minutes and Proceedings) were analyzed in terms of gender issues expressed through the spectrum of intrinsic conceptions of hereditarianism and reproduction. The problematizations make an effort to discuss, through the works of several participants in the conference, the role and status of women in Brazilian eugenics, reproductive control in Brazil and the relationship between studies involving determination of biological gender and improvement of the human race.

The fate of Jewish psychiatric patients in occupied Europe during World War II is inseparable from the fate of the disabled and mentally ill, as planned by the Nazi regime. But Jews found themselves at the confluence of eugenics, Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi racist and anti-Semitic madness. They faced the twin promise of death - both as Jews and as mentally ill. They did not escape from the euthanasia programme and, if by a miracle they survived, they disappeared into the extermination camps. The modalities of annihilation of Jewish psychiatric patients are inseparable from the forms of German occupation, which differed from country to country. In this research we focus initially on various countries in occupied Europe, and then on France.

This article examines female sterilisation practices in early twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It argues that the medical profession, particularly obstetricians and psychiatrists, used debates over the issue to solidify its moral and political standing during two political moments of Brazilian history: when the Brazilian government separated church and state in the 1890s and when Getúlio Vargas's authoritarian regime of the late 1930s renewed alliances with the Catholic church. Shifting notions of gender, race, and heredity further shaped these debates. In the late nineteenth century, a unified medical profession believed that female sterilisation caused psychiatric degeneration in women. By the 1930s, however, the arrival of eugenics caused a divergence amongst physicians. Psychiatrists began supporting eugenic sterilisation to prevent degeneration - both psychiatric and racial. Obstetricians, while arguing that sterilisation no longer caused mental disturbances in women, rejected it as a eugenic practice in regard to race. For obstetricians, the separation of sex from motherhood was more dangerous than any racial 'impurities', both phenotypical and psychiatric. At the same time, a revitalised Brazilian Catholic church rejected eugenics and sterilisation point blank, and its renewed ties with the Vargas regime blocked the medical implementation of any eugenic sterilisation laws. Brazilian women, nonetheless, continued to access the procedure, regardless of the surrounding legal and medical proscriptions., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

This essay explores how hormone treatments were used to optimize and normalize individuals under Italian Fascism. It does so by taking the activities of the Biotypological Orthogenetic Institute - an Italian eugenics and endocrinological centre founded by Nicola Pende in 1926 - as the prime example of a version of eugenics, biotypology, which was based on hormone therapies. This essay first demonstrates that Italian Fascist biopolitics was not only concerned with increasing the size of the Italian population, but also with improving its quality. It suggests that under the Italian Fascist regime hormone therapies became eugenic tools of intervention to improve the Italian race. Second, while Pende's institute purportedly enhanced men and women, its activities show the extent to which the 'techniques of normalization' pursued by the Fascist regime were both systematic and invasive.

Evaluation of sources not previously considered makes it possible to describe Friedrich Meggendorfer's role as a National Socialist university psychiatrist. Relevant archive material and literature were both assessed. The gene-hygiene affinity promulgated by Meggendorfer was based on his own scientific interests, early academic influences, and also positive reinforcement from his career choices. His application of scientific knowledge in the legitimization of National Socialist jurisdiction reflects a dark facet in Meggendorfer's life. One can also criticize his ethics in failing to use his eugenics expertise to stop 'euthanasia'. Future studies into the history of the ethical aspects of Nazi psychiatry should benefit from the setting up of criteria for the collection of biographical data. This would render comparisons and contrasts fairer and more stable.

The Association des médecins de langue française d'Amérique du Nord (AMLFAN) was founded in Québec at the turn of the twentieth century. The physicians who convened at the Association between 1902 and 1910 shared a concern for the degeneration of the French-Canadian "race" under the effects of alcoholism, tuberculosis, and syphilis. For hygienists such as Arthur Rousseau and Charles-Narcisse Valin, this state of degeneration called for hygienic measures that would help regenerate and improve the French-Canadian race. While their suggestion that marriages be matched scientifically in order to prevent the transmission of hereditary and acquired defects from parent to offspring may be reminiscent of eugenics, French-Canadian physicians seemed to have no knowledge of Sir Francis Galton - eugenics' "founding father" - and his work on the topic. This article compares French-Canadian eugenic discourses with Galtonian eugenics in order to shed light on the particularities of the French-Canadian case.

We compare the discourses on obesity found in early- and mid-twentieth century Mexican public discourse with those of Mexican geneticists and doctors today. We argue that postgenomic shifts towards non-determinism, apparently contained in current openness to epigenetics, need to be considered alongside the persistence of racialized genetic determinisms, and alongside the potential for epigenetic environmental determinisms. By exploring the environmentalist explanations of earlier eugenic thinking about obesity, we trace continuities in the gendered and racialized framings of obesity, which risk stigmatizing indigenous ancestry and attributing blame to individual mothers.