Changes

Eugenics was taught as part of the evolution curriculum of many science classes in America in the early 1900s.  For example, it was featured in the textbook used in the famous [[Scopes Trial|Scopes trial]] in 1925.

Eugenics was taught as part of the evolution curriculum of many science classes in America in the early 1900s.  For example, it was featured in the textbook used in the famous [[Scopes Trial|Scopes trial]] in 1925.

"By 1928, the American Genetics Association boasted that there were 376 college courses devoted exclusively to eugenics.  High-school biology textbooks followed suit by the mid-1930s, with most containing material favorable to the idea of eugenical control of reproduction.  It would thus have been difficult to be an even moderately educated reader in the 1920s or 1930s and not have known, at least in general terms, about the claims of eugenics."<ref name="sm">''See'' "Science misapplied: the eugenics age revisited," ''Technology Review'', August-Sep 1996 (Vol. 99, No. 6), at p. 22(10), by Garland E. Allen.</ref>

"By 1928, the American Genetics Association boasted that there were 376 college courses devoted exclusively to eugenics.  High-school biology textbooks followed suit by the mid-1930s, with most containing material favorable to the idea of eugenical control of reproduction.  It would thus have been difficult to be an even moderately educated reader in the 1920s or 1930s and not have known, at least in general terms, about the claims of eugenics."<ref name="sm">''See'' Allen, Garland E. (August-September 1996).  "Science misapplied: the eugenics age revisited".  ''Technology Review'', vol. 99, no. 6, at p. 22(10).</ref>

Important remnatnts of the evolution-eugenics approach exist today, in part because many of Justice Holmes' opinions are still controlling law.  The very first quote in the infamous [[Roe v. Wade]] abortion decision is an unprincipled statement of Justice Holmes in a 1905 opinion.  Indeed, Holmes once wrote favorably in a letter to a future Supreme Court Justice about "restricting propagation by the undesirables and putting to death infants that didn't pass the examination.<ref>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (September 3, 1921).  "Letter to Felix Frankfurter".  For a detailed criticism of Justice Holmes' judicial Darwinism, see Professor Albert W. Alschuler's ''Law Without Values:  The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes'' (Univ. of Chicago Press 2000).</ref>

Important remnatnts of the evolution-eugenics approach exist today, in part because many of Justice Holmes' opinions are still controlling law.  The very first quote in the infamous [[Roe v. Wade]] abortion decision is an unprincipled statement of Justice Holmes in a 1905 opinion.  Indeed, Holmes once wrote favorably in a letter to a future Supreme Court Justice about "restricting propagation by the undesirables and putting to death infants that didn't pass the examination.<ref>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (September 3, 1921).  "Letter to Felix Frankfurter".  For a detailed criticism of Justice Holmes' judicial Darwinism, see Professor Albert W. Alschuler's ''Law Without Values:  The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes'' (Univ. of Chicago Press 2000).</ref>