EUGENICS IN INDIANA HOME

Overview: This Web site was developed in the Summer of 2003 by Jessica Baldanzi, Elizabeth Bulloff, Brent Dragoo, Alicia Fairfield, Claire Hunter, and Kyle Robbins thanks to the support of a President's Summer Undergraduate Research Initiative grant.

Eugenics: The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.

Most Americans think of eugenics as something that happened a long time ago in Nazi Germany. What many are not aware of is that eugenics is a very real part of the past of both Indiana and the United States. Indiana, in fact, was the first state to pass a "sterilization statute," which authorized surgical sterilization of citizens seen as a threat to the nation's gene pool, whether they were deemed criminally insane, "feeble-minded," afflicted with "pauperism," or otherwise undesirable.

This Web site is dedicated to the history of eugenics in Indiana, a topic of which, as an integral part of the past of Indiana, every Hoosier should have a basic understanding. You will discover that Indiana was one of the leaders in the "improvement of the human race." The proponents of eugenics at the time considered their work humanitarian, yet from today's perspective, their methods seem drastic, and even cruel.

Thank your for visiting our Web site. We hope this research is a valuable asset for you. Parts of this page are still under construction, so please be patient with missing and incomplete links. Let us know what you think!

eugenics in indiana
Last Modified: June 16, 2003
Document URL: http://www.kobescent.com/eugenics/index.html
Design and Creative Work by Kobescent.com (Kyle Robbins), 2003
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