Eugenics initially developed in the late 1800s. Sir Francis Galton coined the term, which comes from Greek roots and means “well born.” Eugenics began in a deliberate misreading of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection: Since nature dictates survival of the fittest, the eugenicists argued, only those who are fit should procreate.

The idea became popular in the US in the early 1900s. Some early arguments in favor of birth control framed it as a necessary eugenic tool. Beginning in 1907, states like Indiana forcibly sterilized anyone deemed unfit. These sterilization efforts impacted an estimated 60,000 Americans across 29 states. People with mental health conditions were common targets of eugenic programs.

Adolf Hitler was a fan of the American eugenics project and implemented his own version of it in Germany. In a grotesque irony, he wrote that eugenics would “spare millions of unfortunates undeserved sufferings” (67), making it ultimately a humanitarian practice. American newspapers suggested that Hitler’s eugenics program was “an aspect of the new Germany that America, with the rest of the world, can little afford to criticize” (67). The atrocities that Hitler and his regime committed during WWII led many Americans to rethink eugenics.