Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Eugenics Paper
When I looked up the definition for eugenics it said: "the applied science or the biosocial movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population". Reading this definition over I had to think that it was wrong. Eugenics was the process of elimination in the 1800's all the way to the 1960's. This experiment opened a whole new way of science, it changed everything in good and bad ways.
The social origins of eugenics started during the Civil War and around the time of economic and social struggle. The American industry grew as well as cities and most importantly immigration. There was an increase amount of immigration after World War I. With declining birth rates in the wealthy and powerful class industrialization demanded a change from Laissez-Fair to manage capitalism. Therefore progressivism was created. Progressive reformers grew a strong faith in science and discovery in this new science brought discovery of eugenics.Genetics became the explanation for al of people's problems, such as pauperism, feeble-mindedness, alcoholism, rebelliousness, nomadism, and many more. Eugenics argued that their society was affected by letting these individuals be supported by the state. New immigrants were seen as a problem and heir genes were blamed for it. This led to immigration restriction. Being a way as to solve all of these problems eugenics was used as the cover of science to blame different people for their problems.
Scientific origins of eugenics started in the 20th century as well. Only then the concerns of the environment influenced the idea that ill health, early death, insanity, and defected offspring were because of a bad environment. Thus leading to the degeneracy theory in the 1700's. With this theory the act of masturbation or "onanism" was presented as the first cause of degeneracy. Harry Sharp, a prison physician decided to perform experiments on prisoners in 1899. Sharp and his colleagues made a law in Indiana for the sterilization of degenerates. This act was the first sterilization law in the U.S.
Research methods became a huge source at this time. Research became an effort to apply the findings of Mendel's laws to human traits. Family tree's and pedigrees were researched to find basic patterns in families. It was said by Mendel that "factors" or genes is the key to visible traits in a person. Dominant and recessive genes came into the picture from research from Mendel. Dominant genes being when there is a dominant trait expressed from a gene being inherited from one parent and a recessive gene from another. Although many traits were found, it was difficult to score traits since eugenics attempted to measure complex traits. Today we use DNA makers to follow trait inheritance which makes it easier for families to trace back in time.
Source= http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
The social origins of eugenics started during the Civil War and around the time of economic and social struggle. The American industry grew as well as cities and most importantly immigration. There was an increase amount of immigration after World War I. With declining birth rates in the wealthy and powerful class industrialization demanded a change from Laissez-Fair to manage capitalism. Therefore progressivism was created. Progressive reformers grew a strong faith in science and discovery in this new science brought discovery of eugenics.Genetics became the explanation for al of people's problems, such as pauperism, feeble-mindedness, alcoholism, rebelliousness, nomadism, and many more. Eugenics argued that their society was affected by letting these individuals be supported by the state. New immigrants were seen as a problem and heir genes were blamed for it. This led to immigration restriction. Being a way as to solve all of these problems eugenics was used as the cover of science to blame different people for their problems.
Scientific origins of eugenics started in the 20th century as well. Only then the concerns of the environment influenced the idea that ill health, early death, insanity, and defected offspring were because of a bad environment. Thus leading to the degeneracy theory in the 1700's. With this theory the act of masturbation or "onanism" was presented as the first cause of degeneracy. Harry Sharp, a prison physician decided to perform experiments on prisoners in 1899. Sharp and his colleagues made a law in Indiana for the sterilization of degenerates. This act was the first sterilization law in the U.S.
Research methods became a huge source at this time. Research became an effort to apply the findings of Mendel's laws to human traits. Family tree's and pedigrees were researched to find basic patterns in families. It was said by Mendel that "factors" or genes is the key to visible traits in a person. Dominant and recessive genes came into the picture from research from Mendel. Dominant genes being when there is a dominant trait expressed from a gene being inherited from one parent and a recessive gene from another. Although many traits were found, it was difficult to score traits since eugenics attempted to measure complex traits. Today we use DNA makers to follow trait inheritance which makes it easier for families to trace back in time.
Source= http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
Monday, February 7, 2011
Babies :) and Genes
Since we have been learning about reproduction and how there are different ways to make a baby these days I thought i would explain a few terms in making a baby! The first term I have learned would be the word: Homozygous. This word sounds like a character out of a Dr. Seuss book but really it means 2 of the same copy of a gene. For example AA, or aa. The opposite of Homozygous is another term Heterozygous which means two different copies of a gene. And an example of this would be Aa or Bb. Dominant and Recessive also play a big role in genetics. A dominant gene is a gene that shows up in a trait. A recessive gene is a hidden gene in a trait. Phenotype is a visible trait in the child for example blue eyes or big ears. A genotype are the genes that make the phenotype the genes that are present. Knowing these terms help so much when we are progressing into the baby making process!!!!
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