View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE OPINION ARTICLE published: 20provided October by 2014 Frontiers - Publisher Connector PUBLIC HEALTH doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00201

Intellectual and developmental disabilities: eugenics

1 2 Ingrid Grenon and Joav Merrick * 1 Formerly affiliated with Wrentham Developmental Center, Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, Wrentham, MA, USA 2 Division for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, Health Services, Jerusalem, Israel *Correspondence: [email protected] Edited by: Frederick Robert Carrick, Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies, USA

Reviewed by: Susan Elizabeth Esposito, Life University, USA

Linda Mullin Elkins, Life University, USA Matthew M. Antonucci, Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies, USA

Keywords: intellectual disability, eugenics, developmental disabilities, history, social darwinism

INTRODUCTION and human betterment became prevalent. This work portrays, according to God- Those working today with individuals with Unbelievably, the US was a hotbed of racial dard, an actual case study of the family of intellectual and developmental disabilities purists striving to protect their master race one of the feeble-minded residents under (IDD) are often not aware of the dark side at the time. his care at the Training School. He gives of our history concerning the treatment of All of this coincided nicely with French her a fictional name, Deborah Kallikak, this population and why we,some 150 years psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and and goes on to trace her family back to ago, made institutions or state schools for his test to measure intelligence, first pub- her great–great–great grandfather Martin them (1). lished in 1905. The Binet test, originally Kallikak Sr., a Revolutionary War soldier Maybe we have forgotten or chosen to intended to identify mentally retarded chil- who had an unfortunate liaison with a forget something that we were not taught dren within the school system, strength- young woman who was “feeble-minded in school, and it is likely that our teachers ened the eugenics movement by giving it and degenerate.” This faux pas, according did not know it either. additional impetus. to Goddard, led to “an appalling amount In 1906, Dr. Henry Herbert God- of defectives.” The descendants numbered EUGENICS dard (1866–1957) was the Director of 480, and of those at least 332 were deter- In 1883, Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), the Research Department at the Training mined to be “defective” according to God- cousin of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), School for the feeble-minded in Vineland, dard’s research methodology. coined the term “eugenics.” In his book NJ, USA. Opening its doors in March of The results of Goddard’s study, accord- “Inquiries into human faculty and its devel- 1888, the Training School in Vineland was ing to Goddard, proved that feeble- opment” from 1883, Galton loosely defines considered to be the third institution of its mindedness was passed from one genera- eugenics as “the cultivation of race,”or “the kind; the first opened in Massachusetts in tion to the next. He warned the reader in science of improving stock” (2). 1848 and the second in NewYork in 1852. It his final chapter, in regard to the woman Eugenics is among many late nine- was at the New Jersey Training School that with whom Martin Kallikak Sr. had been teenth century ideologies encompassed in Binet’s Intelligence Testwas translated from indiscreet,“When we conclude that had the the term Social Darwinism. This coin- French to English and readied for prac- nameless girl been segregated in an institu- cided, interestingly, with the Progressive tical application under Goddard’s direc- tion, this defective family would not have Era, which occurred in the period roughly tion. Interestingly, it was also Dr. Goddard existed.” Regarding just the Kallikak fam- from the 1890s into the 1920s in the who coined the term “moron.” (Goddard ily, Goddard further adds, “Society had to United States. So-called“Progressives”were derived “moron” from the ancient Greek pay the heavy price.”The good doctor again responsible for the Food and Drug Act in “moros,” meaning dull, foolish, or sinful). cautions the reader by reminding them, 1906, Prohibition in 1919, and women’s Binet’s test became known as an IQ test. “There are Kallikak families all about us – right to vote in 1920. In 1912, “The Kallikak family” (3) writ- they are multiplying at twice the rate of Galton’s new science spread like a wild- ten by Dr. Goddard was published, and the general population.” Goddard fanned fire in the United Kingdom and the United soon became a bible of sorts for proponents the flames of the eugenic fire until it raged States and in 1907 Indiana passed the first of eugenics (4). This book, and many oth- out of control. It should be no surprise, law allowing “undesirables and defectives,” ers like it, became best sellers of the time. with this book on the best seller list and such as the“mentally retarded,”to be invol- The “Kallikak family” is significant because taken very seriously indeed, there was a untarily sterilized. This is considered to be it was the first of its kind, and certainly surge in the sterilization frenzy. Massachu- the first such eugenic “law” to be passed in quite popular. In his book, Goddard warns setts, however, was one of the few states the world. By 1909, California had passed of a “rising tide of feeble-mindedness,” that did not have mandatory sterilization laws permitting the sterilization of “unde- and urges his readers to take action lest laws. sirables.” Terms, such as mental hygiene, a “hereditary taint” should become the A myriad of books with the same theme racial hygiene, social hygiene, and racial ruination of our society. seem to have emerged between 1912 and

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1930, all touting the necessity of eugenics shall be segregated … Feeble- to authorize the legitimacy of the ster- and giving ample warning of how our soci- mindedness is 80% hereditary. By ilization of defectives within the United ety would degenerate if its principles were segregation only can sufficient relief States, especially those who were insti- not followed. “Safe counsel or practical be obtained so that these unfortu- tutionalized (4). To summarize the lit- eugenics” (5) published in 1922, not sur- nates will not propagate their kind igation; in 1924, the superintendent of prisingly in Illinois, was a manual encour- … Segregation is humane and effec- a Virginia state school, Dr. John Hen- aging young men and women to find “suit- tive, and a good financial investment dren Bell, requested permission from the able” partners in marriage in order to for developing greater prosperity and school’s Board of Directors to have 18- “improve the human race.” In addition, happiness in the future. year-old Carrie Buck sterilized, because in the book advocates for “sterilization of the his opinion she was both feeble-minded In January of 1922, Massachusetts feeble-minded, degenerate, and criminal.” and promiscuous. It would seem that Miss Governor Channing Cox (1879–1968) A study of the feeble-minded (6) published Buck had given birth to an illegitimate addressed the Massachusetts Legislature in 1920, addressed the “national problem child, and that both her mother and grand- and the following is a bit of what he said: of the mental defective” and specifically mother had been suspected of being men- stated that the “mentally defective” are The Commonwealth has recognized tally retarded. What is really notable is what those who are not able to have a home and the importance of a practical men- the Supreme Court Justice had to say about for whom “the only permanent parent is tal hygiene program, and had pro- the case: the State.” vided much legislation to make effec- It is better for all the world, if From California, the first hotbed of tive such a program. The State’s pro- instead of waiting to execute degen- eugenics proponents, Ezra S. Gosney gram for the feeble-minded embraces erate offspring for crime or to let (1855–1942) and Paul Popenoe (1888– the following factors: them starve for their imbecility, soci- 1979) brought us “Sterilization for human • Identification ety can prevent those who are man- betterment” (7), a book chronicling 6,000 • Registration ifestly unfit from continuing their “successful” sterilizations in California of • Education kind...three generations of imbeciles “idiots and other undesirables.” According • Supervision are enough. to Gosney “eugenic sterilization, primarily, • Segregation is applied by the state or with its sanction, to persons who would be likely to produce Of course, segregation was important in CONCLUSION defective children.” this age of eugenics, and interestingly the It is sufficient to say that eugenics was not In 1911, when Dr. Goddard was busy third Massachusetts“state school,”Belcher- only fashionable; it had somehow become studying the bloodlines of some of the res- town, would have opened the same year. the law of the land. There were so many idents at the Training School in New Jersey, Just 1 year earlier, in September of 1921, eugenics devotees lurking about during the the Governor of that state, Woodrow Wil- Cox made history when he became the early part of the last century that it would son (1856–1924) and later 28th US Pres- first Massachusetts governor to broadcast require a whole volume just to name them ident, signed a sterilization bill that went live. His radio debut was made in Spring- all. into law. The new 1911 law specifically field, MA, USA at the Eastern States Exhibi- The eugenics movement began to stated,“An act to authorize and provide for tion. Interestingly, during the 1920s “Fitter spread from the United States to Germany the sterilization of feeble-minded, epilep- family” contests sponsored by the Ameri- and there was one person who recognized tics, rapists, certain criminals, and other can Eugenics Society were quite popular at its dark potential, and began to orchestrate defectives.” community fairs and livestock expositions. a plan to put it to full use (4). His name Keeping in step with the rest of the This was especially so in Massachusetts at was Adolph Hitler. It is indeed frightening nation, eugenics was all the rage in Mass- the Eastern States Exhibition, where the to think that Hitler got his visions of racial achusetts. Often touted as a progressive best-bred humans were shown off along- purity from ideas popularized both in the state, during this period Massachusetts was side their counterparts from the animal United Kingdom and the United States of in many respects a bastion of backward kingdom. America, but he did. A proponent of Amer- thinking, at least by today’s standards. We The United States was certainly setting ican eugenics, Adolph Hitler adopted this found a small pamphlet from the “Mass- the trend in eugenics, and in so doing gain- strategy and began to put it to work in his achusetts Society for Prevention of Cru- ing the world’s attention. By the end of native country. The American best seller elty to Children” on “The menace of the the second decade of the twentieth cen- “Sterilization for human betterment” was feeble-minded in Massachusetts” (8). tury, eugenics was so well-rooted in this reprinted in Germany in 1933. In Germany, country that it seems to have become the first involuntary sterilization laws were A growing public sentiment requires the status quo. In 1927, Supreme Court put into effect in 1934, 27 years after the that feeble-minded women of child- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841– first US laws were passed (9). bearing age who are a burden to the 1935), a staunch supporter of eugenics, Although some may find this topic dis- community and a menace to the ruled in favor of the compulsory steril- turbing and would prefer a more pleasant future well being of the race, and ization of a young woman in Virginia. subject, it seems that it is a matter that must defectives with criminal tendencies The case, known as Buck v. Bell, served be exposed over and over, lest we forget.

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Those who cannot remember the past Story of Life. Naperville, IL: Southwestern Publish- commercial or financial relationships that could be are condemned to repeat it George ing (1922). construed as a potential conflict of interest. 6. MacMurchy H. The Almosts. A Study of the Feeble- Santayana (1863–1952), Spanish Minded. Boston, MA: Riverside Press (1920). Received: 27 August 2014; accepted: 05 October 2014; philosopher and novelist 7. Gosney ES, Popenoe P. Sterilization for Human published online: 20 October 2014. Betterment: A Summary of Results of 6,000 Opera- Citation: Grenon I and Merrick J (2014) Intellectual REFERENCES tions in California, 1909-1929. New York: Macmillan and developmental disabilities: eugenics. Front. Public 1. Grenon I. From One Century to the Next: A History Health 2:201. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00201 (1929). of Wrentham State School and the Institutional Model 8. Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cru- This article was submitted to Child Health and Human

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