Arguments Against Eugenics Summary

Ross L. Jones’s article investigates a society that practiced eugenics during the last two centuries. Eugenics was a major school of thought based on science and accepted as true by upper-class people (165). Eugenics played an enormous role in Australian society by denouncing those who had “inferior genes”, which was approved by the medical community and the politicians of that era. The main motivator for eugenics was the educated class and politicians. Pro-eugenicists sought the “maximising of an individual’s potential” as long as the individual represented people they believed were like themselves and stripped those who were seen as “inferior” of their rights as human beings and citizens (166). People who did not meet that definition were deemed “mentally deficient” and and subject to …show more content…
Jones states that Victorian politicians marginalized those from outside of the Australia (183). This racial intolerance came mainly from left wing politicians who saw foreigners as “inferior races” and of greater concern than the “mental deficient” (183). These left wing politicians argued that the sole purpose of migrants was to take the jobs of locals (183). Jones also cites the opinions of radical eugenicists, who according to Jones, stated that “mental deficients” should be stripped of their “civic rights” (184). This marginalization of people was promoted by eugenicists, and was seen as “outrageous” and an unfair treatment of people by media outlets in the United Kingdom (184). Jones compares the Australian eugenics ideology to that of the Nazi sterilization laws because of their similar ideals (184). According to Jones, Australian eugenics did not develop much further because of the “horror” of Nazi sterilization laws, which were supported by fascist ideologies which were exposed following World War