Freedom To Procreate Quotes
It is ironic that Hitler obtained part of his sick philosophy from an American writer. Grant was advocating forced sterilization of mental defectives. However, in the context of Germany’s history of racism and anti-Semitism, Hitler carried the notion to its ultimate extreme. See {602054}
400,000 Germans were forcibly sterilized for “mental illness”, “slow learning”. “poor posture”, and a number of other characteristics. Soon, sterilization would be replaced by murders and extermination. Ironically, Hitler and other Nazis would quote American advocates of eugenics to further justify their practice of forced sterilization. A number of American states actually sentenced “defective” people to forced sterization.
The Eugenics Record Office was an activist organization advocating the forced sterilization of those people who they deemed to be inferior from a hereditary point of view. Most Americans are today shocked to find that this organization and its ideas were so influential that more than 30 states had passed similar laws. Only California and Virginia however were zealous in carrying them out . By 1935, 20,000 forced sterilizations had been carried out in the United States. The Supreme Court at the time even found such laws Constitutional. See {603680}.
This dramatic quotation essentially argued that human sperm and egg cells were the property of and must be under the control of the society and not the individual. Although this fascist notion never had a majority in America, there were a substantial number of Americans who agreed with this position. This quote is also an excellent example of an ideological organizations adopting the names and rubric of science and trying to sell junk science to the nation,
The phrase “submerged tenth” was ironically used earlier {595222} by a great humanitarian, William Booth, 1829-1912, British Cleric & Founder of The Salvation Army to refer to the poor and the underclass of England. The Salvation Army focused on helping the submerged tenth; the Eugenics Record Office, sterilizing them. The Eugenics Record Office was an activist organization advocating the forced sterilization of those people who they deemed to be inferior from a hereditary point of view. Most Americans are today shocked to find that this organization and its ideas were so influential that more than 30 states had passed similar laws. Only California and Virginia were very zealous in carrying them out however. By 1935, 20,000 forced sterilizations had been carried out in the United States. The Supreme Court at the time even found such laws Constitutional. See {603680}.
This book was the first popular attempt to spread the eugenics concept. Is was translated into German in 1925 and unfortunately read by Adolf Hitler who sent Grant a complimentary letter. See {603544}
The correspondence involved the establishment of a new organization to promote legislative directed sterilization of those people who were not worthy of “pioneer” stock.
