Eugenics/Baby Lab

Eugenics is the study of improving genetics in humans. They improve the genetics using selective breeding, and try to get rid of any bad genes by not reproducing them. Scientists believed that anyone with a disease that is hereditary should be sterilized as to not pass down the bad genes. Eugenics was a very big thing during the 20th century, but largely died down after world war 2. Genes are passed down from chance. For example if someone with a gene Rr has a kid with some rr, then the odds of having a kid that's Rr is 50% and the odds of them having rr is also 50%. You make a Punnett square, to determine the odds of what the kid will get. If there is the dominant trait with the recessive, the dominant will be shown. That's why eugenics is about eliminating a gene they don't want. If they only want the dominant gene then they'll sterilize anyone who has only the recessive gene, to cut down the chances of the recessive gene being spread. When did the baby lab. We looked at the traits both the parents had then made a Punnett square to see which combinations were possible, then flipped a coin to determine which trait each of the parents passed on. If both me and my parter were Cc then we'd both flip a coin, If i got heads, then I'd pass on C and if my partner got tails they'd pass on c. So the kid would have the Cc gene. Almost all of it is about chance
Eugenics was started because most people believed that the fittest and healthiest people were the ones who should have children, so in order to make sure of it, people wanted to eliminate a bad gene from the gene pool. People believed that society had already spent enough money supporting people and there diseases, and that sterilization would be a much better solution to the problem. Some people however believed that it wasn't genes that caused the problems, and that it was a person's environment that can have a big impact on their behavior and defects. At the first international congress in 1911, Punnet said, “Except in very few cases, our knowledge of heredity in man at present is far to slight and far too uncertain to base legislation upon.” He believed that we did not have enough knowledge of genetics to justify sterilizing people. In 1942, a law was passed that the involuntary sterilization of criminals was legal. Then eugenicists tried to stop interracial mariage, and believed that a white person shouldn't be able to marry someone that has any blood in them other than caucasian, however that idea was shot down.
Eugenics has had a big influence through out society, and discourages being ok with the fact that everyone is different from each other. Even Hitler, quotes Eugenicists a lot. He wanted all white, blonde hair, blue eyed people. Hitler had an thorough knowledge of eugenics and how it worked. Eugenics have had a big influence over people now a days and how they act around people that are different.

http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/
https://people.creighton.edu/~idc24708/Genes/Eugenics/History%20of%20Eugenics.htm