The Dangers
of Eugenics
How a discredited pseudo-science persists under new names — from America's forced sterilizations to the halls of power in Washington today.
Key Insight
Eugenics is the means to an end — the desire to improve the population — which led to pseudo-scientific responses with devastating consequences.
“People are not so stupid that they cannot manage their own affairs and also so clever that they can manage each other's.”
— G.K. Chesterton, English Philosopher & Creator of Father Brown
With the atrocities associated with eugenics, especially from the Nazis, but also within America, it has been discredited as pseudo-science. Today, no serious scientist or medical professional would define themselves as an eugenicist.
Yet its goals endure. If eugenics is the belief that you can improve the population through selective breeding, it can potentially be done through policy — and this desire has never fully disappeared. It has simply changed names.
America's Accepted Methodology
During the 1940s in America, eugenics was heralded as an accepted methodology, even as it led to thousands of women being forcefully sterilized. At the height of its prominence, eugenics had its champions ranging from the Rockefeller Foundation, Margaret Sanger, and Teddy Roosevelt, to Helen Keller.
Its most extreme form was realized during the Holocaust. Legislative acts inspired by eugenic ideology included the Immigration Act of 1924, prohibition of interracial marriage, and other marriage restrictions.
“Our puny sentimentalism has caused us to forget that a human life is sacred only when it may be of some use to itself and the world … the world is already flooded with unhappy, unhealthy, mentally unsound persons that should never have been born.”
— Helen Keller, Eugenics Advocate
Pernkopf's Atlas: Science Built on Atrocity
Eduard Pernkopf's Atlas — the controversial book which detailed human anatomy — is still used by surgeons today, yet remains a source of ongoing ethical debate. Pernkopf was an avowed Nazi and advocate of eugenics who, along with his colleagues, used the bodies of executed political prisoners to create his so-called Atlas.
The continued use of this text by the medical community raises a question that haunts science to this day: can knowledge extracted through atrocity be legitimately employed? The answer is not simple — and the discomfort of that question is precisely the point.
Still In Use Today
Pernkopf's Atlas, created using bodies of Nazi victims, is still referenced by surgeons — a persistent ethical controversy within the medical community.
“Eugenic goals are most likely to be attained under a name other than eugenics.”
— Frederick Osborn, Founding Member of the American Eugenics Society, 1968
The Name Is Taboo. The Practice Remains.
Despite its demise, we would be remiss if we didn't admit that some aspects and supporters of eugenics exist today, albeit under different names. Examples include forced sterilization of California inmates that continued until the early 2000s.
While the idea of eugenics was once a state responsibility, it has been handed over to the marketplace. Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek's Bastards, raises the question of libertarian eugenics in the Financial Times:
“By delegitimizing mainstream expertise, dismantling vaccine mandates and curbing the authority of public health agencies, it transfers responsibility for health and survival to private individuals … the predictable outcome is that those with resources and education will thrive while those without will fall further behind.”
— Quinn Slobodian, Financial Times
Private organizations such as Elon Musk's Neuralink project, while providing promise to paraplegics, have raised ethical questions given his stated belief in human enhancement.
Power Without Science Is a Dangerous Combination
Denial Versus the Record
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, denies having eugenicist tendencies, yet his statements and writings over the years make it difficult to dismiss that accusation.
During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy made the following statement — one that echoes the logic of the Tuskegee experiment:
“We should not be giving Black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to whites, because their immune system is better than ours.”
— RFK Jr., Senate Confirmation Hearing
This absurdity could obviously lead to the Black population being deprived of preventative vaccines. About children getting vaccines, Kennedy said:
“They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a Holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
— RFK Jr.
Under the Kennedy administration, America is in danger of losing its measles elimination status if the measles outbreak continues into 2026. In addition, his decision to appoint David Geier — who had been disciplined for administering puberty-blocking drugs to autistic children without proper oversight — is a source of significant controversy.
Measles Elimination at Risk
America risks losing its measles elimination status if the current outbreak continues into 2026 — a direct consequence of vaccine misinformation.
Debunked Science as Policy
Kennedy is not alone in his disproven theories — but the fact that he is in a position to make policy based on debunked science is a dangerous sign.
Kennedy is not the only one. During an interview on CNBC, Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Treasury, said:
“We're the only country that let other people just come in without vetting them and deciding whether they're really going to help the economy of America. Why should we take people who are below average? It just doesn't make any sense.”
— Howard Lutnick, CNBC Interview
Eugenics has been discredited.
But its goal remains.
Recognizing the persistence of eugenic thinking — in policy, in public health administration, in immigration rhetoric — is the first step toward confronting it. History has shown us where these ideas lead. The names change. The danger does not.
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