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The banner of eugenics was taken up by a variety of groups in the United States and around the world, each of which believed that it would lead to the creation of healthier, more intelligent people, conserve society's limited resources, and reduce human suffering.  Of course, one of the unspoken aspects of this "reduction" in suffering was that it worked, not by reducing suffering ''per se'', but by reducing the number of people through forced sterilization -- fewer people, ergo, less suffering.  Many women were sterilized involuntarily and without their knowledge under Eugenics laws which were passed in many states of the [[United States]] throughout the nineteen-teens and twenties.

The banner of eugenics was taken up by a variety of groups in the United States and around the world, each of which believed that it would lead to the creation of healthier, more intelligent people, conserve society's limited resources, and reduce human suffering.  Of course, one of the unspoken aspects of this "reduction" in suffering was that it worked, not by reducing suffering ''per se'', but by reducing the number of people through forced sterilization -- fewer people, ergo, less suffering.  Many women were sterilized involuntarily and without their knowledge under Eugenics laws which were passed in many states of the [[United States]] throughout the nineteen-teens and twenties.

===Eugenics and the state, 1890s–1945===

===Eugenics and the state, 1890s–1963===

One of the earliest modern advocates of eugenic ideas (before they were labeled as such) was [[Alexander Graham Bell]]. In 1881 Bell investigated the rate of [[deaf]]ness on [[Martha's Vineyard]], Massachusetts. From this he concluded that deafness was hereditary in nature and recommended a marriage prohibition against the deaf ("Memoir upon the formation of a deaf variety of the human Race") even though he was married to a deaf woman. Like many other early eugenicists, he proposed controlling immigration for the purpose of eugenics and warned that boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race.

One of the earliest modern advocates of eugenic ideas (before they were labeled as such) was [[Alexander Graham Bell]]. In 1881 Bell investigated the rate of [[deaf]]ness on [[Martha's Vineyard]], Massachusetts. From this he concluded that deafness was hereditary in nature and recommended a marriage prohibition against the deaf ("Memoir upon the formation of a deaf variety of the human Race") even though he was married to a deaf woman. Like many other early eugenicists, he proposed controlling immigration for the purpose of eugenics and warned that boarding schools for the deaf could possibly be considered as breeding places of a deaf human race.