Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America
http://www.100md.com
《新英格兰医药杂志》
This interesting but mistitled book is another laboriously researched retrospective of the history of eugenics, with an emphasis on California. Histories can be read to learn about what events happened in the past and about the beliefs and contexts that explain why those events happened, without the imposition of modern beliefs and knowledge. They can also be read to learn lessons from the past that can be applied today. Alexandra Minna Stern's narrative documents the faults of eugenics as seen by modern eyes, but she provides little insight into the frontiers of the eugenic project and its future directions.
Just as Karl Marx interpreted everything in terms of economics, so Stern interprets everything in terms of eugenics. She stretches the idea of eugenics as "a multifaceted set of programs aimed at better breeding that straddled many social, spatial, and temporal divides" to eugenics as an all-pervasive cabal. Multifaceted indeed! Beginning with the 1915 Pan American Pacific International Exposition, Stern asserts, tropical medicine, colonialism, immigration policy, the Border Patrol, the Sierra Club, Save-the-Redwoods League, Zero Population Growth (now named Population Connection), marital counseling, psychometrics, genetic counseling, family planning, genetic testing, and stem-cell research have been principally motivated by eugenics. This assertion is both the strength and weakness of the narrative. In addition to documenting the well-known coercive sterilization laws, Stern also illuminates the generally unacknowledged eugenic aspects of California's policies and personalities. For example, the Commonwealth Club of California at one time had a Eugenics Section. But Stern's language is too emotionally charged, and she fails to consider, other than in a perfunctory way, that motivations having little or nothing to do with eugenics also played a key role in the design and implementation of many of the projects described.
Stern views the "Modern America" of the title as an extension of California. She cites three reasons why "California stood at the vanguard of the national eugenics movement." First, the European settlers of the gold-rush era were accepting of science, especially biology and genetics, as a means of introducing agriculture and selective breeding to a virgin land. Second, they embraced the "eugenic racism" expressed against Asians, Native Americans, and Hispanics. Third, many well-established public and private organizations subscribed to progressive eugenic philosophies.
Many pages throughout the book are devoted to describing a pantheon of powerful eugenists in California, including Fred Butler, Louis Terman, Paul Popenoe, John Haynes, Luther Burbank, Ezra Gosney, August Vollmer, Charles Goethe, and David Jordan. The text demonstrates the author's diligence in reviewing personal papers and historical records for traces of eugenic connections. There are 72 pages of notes and 32 pages of references.
Although I agree with the need to be prudent in developing and using genetic and reproductive techniques, no barrier will be strong enough to do anything but delay their inevitable advance. Work on cloning, stem-cell therapy, gene therapy, and infertility treatments continues in both public and private research institutions worldwide. We all can support the author's call for more scientific education and public debate about such techniques. One concern I share with the author is that, because these techniques are part of a market-driven health care system, access to them will be unequal. This inequality is part of a broader health care problem that deserves more attention. Although the writing is pedantic, this book is accessible to the general reader and is a useful expansion of the history of eugenics.
George Cunningham, M.D., M.P.H.
California Department of Health Services (Retired)
Richmond, CA 94804
gc94112@yahoo.com((American Crossroads. 17.)
Just as Karl Marx interpreted everything in terms of economics, so Stern interprets everything in terms of eugenics. She stretches the idea of eugenics as "a multifaceted set of programs aimed at better breeding that straddled many social, spatial, and temporal divides" to eugenics as an all-pervasive cabal. Multifaceted indeed! Beginning with the 1915 Pan American Pacific International Exposition, Stern asserts, tropical medicine, colonialism, immigration policy, the Border Patrol, the Sierra Club, Save-the-Redwoods League, Zero Population Growth (now named Population Connection), marital counseling, psychometrics, genetic counseling, family planning, genetic testing, and stem-cell research have been principally motivated by eugenics. This assertion is both the strength and weakness of the narrative. In addition to documenting the well-known coercive sterilization laws, Stern also illuminates the generally unacknowledged eugenic aspects of California's policies and personalities. For example, the Commonwealth Club of California at one time had a Eugenics Section. But Stern's language is too emotionally charged, and she fails to consider, other than in a perfunctory way, that motivations having little or nothing to do with eugenics also played a key role in the design and implementation of many of the projects described.
Stern views the "Modern America" of the title as an extension of California. She cites three reasons why "California stood at the vanguard of the national eugenics movement." First, the European settlers of the gold-rush era were accepting of science, especially biology and genetics, as a means of introducing agriculture and selective breeding to a virgin land. Second, they embraced the "eugenic racism" expressed against Asians, Native Americans, and Hispanics. Third, many well-established public and private organizations subscribed to progressive eugenic philosophies.
Many pages throughout the book are devoted to describing a pantheon of powerful eugenists in California, including Fred Butler, Louis Terman, Paul Popenoe, John Haynes, Luther Burbank, Ezra Gosney, August Vollmer, Charles Goethe, and David Jordan. The text demonstrates the author's diligence in reviewing personal papers and historical records for traces of eugenic connections. There are 72 pages of notes and 32 pages of references.
Although I agree with the need to be prudent in developing and using genetic and reproductive techniques, no barrier will be strong enough to do anything but delay their inevitable advance. Work on cloning, stem-cell therapy, gene therapy, and infertility treatments continues in both public and private research institutions worldwide. We all can support the author's call for more scientific education and public debate about such techniques. One concern I share with the author is that, because these techniques are part of a market-driven health care system, access to them will be unequal. This inequality is part of a broader health care problem that deserves more attention. Although the writing is pedantic, this book is accessible to the general reader and is a useful expansion of the history of eugenics.
George Cunningham, M.D., M.P.H.
California Department of Health Services (Retired)
Richmond, CA 94804
gc94112@yahoo.com((American Crossroads. 17.)