1900s
1881
THE EUGENICS MOVEMENT
As per the Merriam-Webster dictionary , Eugeni is the practice or advocacy of controlled selectiv breeding of human populations to improve th population ’ s genetic composition . The term wa coined in 1883 by British scholar Sir Francis Galto ( Charles Darwin ’ s cousin ) who justified it as a wa to reduce human suffering by ' breeding out ' diseas disabilities , and ‘ undesirable characteristics ’ fro the human population .
ALBRECHT KOSSEL
In 1881 , the biochemist identified nuclein as nucleic acid and provided its present chemical name , deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA ). Kossel also isolated the five nitrogenous bases that are the building blocks of DNA : adenine ( A ), cytosine ( C ), guanine ( G ), and thymine ( T ); as well the base unique to RNA : uracil ( U ).
By 1900 , Mendel ’ s theories had established statistical pattern of inheritance for features suc as height and colour . Early supporters of eugenic believed that mental illness , criminal tendencie and even poverty were also inherited and that thes conditions could be bred out of the gene pool . reality , it was often used as a sort of scientific racism to convince people that certain racial stocks we superior to others .
The horrors of institutionalized eugenics were nev more evident than in Nazi Germany during WW When the atrocities of the regime were brought light , eugenics quickly lost its momentum .