Description
Book SynopsisExploring the history of eugenics in the U.S.
Trade ReviewAs a nation with lofty ambitions, the United States has had a mixed relationship with eugenics. The first country to prohibit procreation by criminals and 'idiots' — in the state of Indiana in 1907 — today it embraces the Human Genome Project and the possibility of genetic enhancement. Law professor Paul Lombardo examines US legislation and attitudes to human selection in the past century, and the likelihood of such pressures arising again in modern genetics.
* Nature *
Valuable and welcome . . .
* BULLETIN HISTORY OF MEDICINE *
[T]here are indeed valuable lessons to be learnt from . . . this book; the editor was probably wise to confine its scope to the narrower brief of American compulsory sterilisation . . . .Nov. 2011
* Human Genetics *
Valuable and welcome . . .Vol. 85.4 Winter 2011
* BULLETIN HISTORY OF MEDICINE *
A noted historian of the eugenics movement, editor Lombardo has divided this book into essays . . . The final two essays are perhaps the most important, as they look at the implications for contemporary medicine and law regarding the renewed interest in 'better breeding' as a result of the Human Genome Project. . . . Recommended.October 2011
* Choice *
Paul Lombardo has assembled a compelling argument for close monitoring of modern genetic policies in the Human Genome Era . . . It is essential reading. April 20, 2011
* The Internet Review of Books *
Table of ContentsContents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Looking Back at Eugenics / Paul A. Lombardo
Part 1. The Indiana Origins of Eugenic Sterilization
1. The Hoosier Connection: Compulsory Sterilization as Moral Hygiene / Elof Axel Carlson
2. The Indiana Way of Eugenics: Sterilization Laws, 1907–74 / Jason S. Lantzer
Part 2. Eugenics and Popular Culture
3. From Better Babies to the Bunglers: Eugenics on Tobacco Road / Paul A. Lombardo
4. "Quality, Not Mere Quantity, Counts": Black Eugenics and the NAACP Baby Contests / Gregory Michael Dorr and Angela Logan
Part 3. State Studies of Eugenic Sterilization
5. From Legislation to Lived Experience: Eugenic Sterilization in California and Indiana, 1907–79 / Alexandra Minna Stern
6. Eugenics and Social Welfare in New Deal Minnesota / Molly Ladd-Taylor
7. Reassessing Eugenic Sterilization: The Case of North Carolina / Johanna Schoen
8. Protection or Control? Women's Health, Sterilization Abuse, and Relf v. Weinberger / Gregory Michael Dorr
Part 4. Eugenics in the Human Genome Era
9. Are We Entering a "Perfect Storm" for a Resurgence of Eugenics? Science, Medicine, and Their Social Context / Linda L. McCabe and Edward R. B. McCabe
10. Modern Eugenics and the Law / Maxwell J. Mehlman
List of Contributors
Index
