Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The study or practice of attempting to improve the human gene pool by encouraging the reproduction of people considered to have desirable traits and discouraging or preventing the reproduction of people considered to have undesirable traits.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The science of generative or procreative development; the doctrine of progress or evolution, especially in the human race, through improved conditions in the relations of the sexes.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The science of improving stock, whether human or animal.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology The science of improving stock, whether human or animal.
- noun philosophy A social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary qualities through selective breeding.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the study of methods of improving genetic qualities by selective breeding (especially as applied to human mating)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term eugenics comes from the Greek roots for “good” and “generation” or “origin” and was first used to refer to the “science” of heredity and good breeding in about 1883.
Dr. West, meet Dr. Tinkle, Creationist eugenicist - The Panda's Thumb 2007
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The Galton connection is quite obviously baseless, for surely no one can be held responsible for something their cousin promotes (especially since Galton didn't even invent the term eugenics until a year after Darwin's death and Darwin specifically condemned any policy that would "neglect the weak and helpless").
Eric Michael Johnson: Intelligent Design Creationists Abuse Science and Victims of the Holocaust 2010
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I'm not sure it's fair to use the term eugenics, in that we're not talking about euthanizing old people, en masse or individually, at least not in this case.
Should the government decide that you've lived long enough? Ann Althouse 2008
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None dare call it eugenics, but private eugenics is highly popular with liberals.
Gay Gene Theory Could Lead to Eugenic Abortion Steve Sailer 2005
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In addition, one can download the book “Hereditary Genius” from the internet and as far as I can tell, the term eugenics does not appear in the book.
Vacuity of ID: Dembski Channeling Colbert? - The Panda's Thumb 2007
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I am aware the term eugenics didn't have the same negative context pre-WW2 it has obtained post-WW2.
Archive 2006-05-01 2006
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And he was the man who coined the term eugenics, wasn't he?
The Magyar Venus Hamilton, Lyn 2004
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His subject that evening unfortunately was not advice to travellers but rather his theories on what he calls eugenics, with which I simply cannot agree.
The Magyar Venus Hamilton, Lyn 2004
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Glenn Beck was stating this morning that eugenics is the ultimate goal of Obama's health care plan.
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Class-based eugenics is alive and well in the world today, most glaringly in the US of A.
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